Potash Corp. wants face time with K+S to save takeover deal – by David Stringer, Andrew Noël and Sheenagh Matthews (Bloomberg News/BNN – July 3, 2015)

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Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. said it wants to meet with management of K+S AG as soon as possible to address concerns that led the German fertilizer producer to reject its 7.8 billion-euro ($8.7 billion U.S.) takeover offer.

“We are seeking to meet with K+S management at the earliest possible opportunity so that we can jointly discuss our commitments and further specify the details that would form the basis of a successful combination,” Potash Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jochen Tilk said in a statement on Friday.

Potash Corp. (POT.TO) seeks to reassure K+S that it wouldn’t be unraveled after the deal, saying the offer isn’t predicated on closing mines, curtailing production, selling the German company’s salt business or cutting jobs. It repeated the merits of its offer of 41 euros a share, after K+S CEO Norbert Steiner indicated in a earlier statement that a proposal of at least 50 euros a share would be more appropriate.

Tilk, who was born and bred in Germany, has ground to make up if Potash Corp. sticks to its intention of making this a friendly deal. Steiner said Thursday that negotiations hadn’t included detailed information on plans for the German potash supplier or job security for its employees, with the bid failing to reflect the rising value of the Legacy potash project in Canada.

“We tried to get further and detailed information from Potash Corp.,” Steiner said yesterday at a press conference in Frankfurt. “That led to us asking for information several times and getting several answers. But they were very general and didn’t really enlighten us as to the real plans.”

Should a new offer be made, the supervisory and management boards would examine it in the same manner as they scrutinized the first, he said.

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