{"id":440481,"date":"2010-03-17T12:39:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-17T16:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"e2249889-c78b-43e3-9643-b1d7d4aa587b:409013"},"modified":"2010-03-17T12:39:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-17T16:39:00","slug":"agriums-next-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/440481","title":{"rendered":"Agrium&#8217;s next steps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Now that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.financialpost.com\/markets\/company\/index.html?symbol=AGU&amp;id=96775\" >Agrium Inc.<\/a> has pulled the plug on its contentious bid for CF Industries, what&#39;s next for the Canadian fertilizer giant?<\/p>\n<p>Richard Kelartas, analyst at Dundee Securities, has a few ideas including greater focus in China through joint ventures.  <\/p>\n<p>&quot;Agrium currently has one joint-venture with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.financialpost.com\/markets\/company\/index.html?symbol=HF&amp;id=10535586\" >Hanfeng Evergreen<\/a> in China but the company could potentially sign more,&quot; he said in a note to clients.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>&quot;The only exclusivity in the two companies contract is for sulphur coated urea, so Agrium could partner with other conventional fertilizer producers as well.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Closer to home, Mr. Kelartas said Agrium is considering acquisitions that will help solidify its retail presence. <\/p>\n<p>Agrium is by far the largest farm retailer in the US with as many outlets as its next four competitors combined,&quot; he wrote. <\/p>\n<p>&quot;Despite its size, the company only has a [roughly] 15% share of the market and is looking to make several small acquisitions in the coming years to fill gaps in its geographic coverage and further consolidate the industry.&quot; <\/p>\n<p>The analyst added that Agrium would also like to expand its footprint in Canada and South America. <\/p>\n<p>He reiterated his Buy rating on the stock and raised his price target to $82 from $75 on increased earnings estimates due to a higher potash price forecast. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:dpett@nationalpost.com%20\">David Pett<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/network.nationalpost.com\/NP\/aggbug.aspx?PostID=409013\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Now that Agrium Inc. has pulled the plug on its contentious bid for CF Industries, what&#39;s next for the Canadian fertilizer giant? Richard Kelartas, analyst at Dundee Securities, has a few ideas including greater focus in China through joint ventures. &quot;Agrium currently has one joint-venture with Hanfeng Evergreen in China but the company could potentially [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4060,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-440481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}