IMC, Cargill create titan

The largest deal over the report period ending Jan. 27 was the announcement of a merger between Illinois-based fertilizer giant IMC Global and the fertilizer division of the secretive agri-business conglomerate Cargill, which is the largest privately held company in the U.S.

Cargill will own 66.5% of the new company, which will be taken public on the New York Stock Exchange, though Cargill itself intends to remain private. Fritz Corrigan, currently a Cargill executive VP, will be president and CEO of the new venture.

The combined companies would rake in annual revenue of US$4.1 billion from more than US$5.4 billion in assets that would include 14.4% of the world’s phosphate capacity. IMC has not made money since 1997, but the new company is expected to be profitable. The merger should allow IMC better flexibility in dealing with its US$2.1-billion debt load, which, over the past two years, has been exacerbated by tough times in the phosphate business.

IMC closed the week up US54 to US$11.75, touching a 52-week high of US$12.40 along the way.

Platinum-group-metals stocks had the sweetest week, with Russian-American miner Stillwater Mining soaring 23% to US$12.13, and South Africa’s Anglo American Platinum rising US$5.90 to US$51.

Among the micro-caps, Bellingham, Wash.-based Geocom Resources rose 25% to US$1.70. Shares may be reversing a major downtrend that started in September 2003, when they peaked at US$3.52 in the lead-up to an announcement that Geocom had staked two gold and base metal properties in Chile.