Mosaic to Buy Cargill Trusts' Shares

   By Ben Fox Rubin 
 

Mosaic Co. (MOS) agreed to purchase all of the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation and the Anne Ray Charitable Trust's restricted Class A shares in the fertilizer company.

"This agreement demonstrates our confidence in the future and effectively puts the Cargill split-off transaction behind us," said Jim Prokopanko, Mosaic's chief executive. "This is a major step toward our goal of a more efficient balance sheet by mid-2014."

In 2011, privately held agribusiness giant Cargill Inc. said it would give up its majority stake in Mosaic in a transaction valued at about $24.3 billion. The deal was largely driven by the 2006 death of Margaret Cargill, who was the granddaughter of the company founder, and controlled about 17% of the company.

Mosaic agreed to purchase the all the trusts' remaining 43.3 million restricted Class A shares over the next eight months.

In connection with the agreement, the trusts have also agreed to release Mosaic from the contractual obligation to register any remaining common shares in a secondary offering.

Through the 2011 transaction, Ms. Cargill's charitable trusts received about 110 million Mosaic shares, valued at the time around $9.4 billion. Margaret Cargill's trustees had intended to sell their Mosaic shares over the following years.

Mosaic shares closed Friday at $46.79 and were up 1% premarket. The stock is down 17% so far this year.

Write to Ben Fox Rubin at [e-mail]

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