Agrium Ups Bid for CF; Terra Resists

CALGARY, Alberta (TheStreet) -- Fertilizer-maker Agrium(AGU) has sweetened its bid for smaller rival CF Industries(CF), no doubt responding to CF's move earlier this week to pressure Terra Industries(TRA) in its own hostile takeover attempt.

Agrium on Thursday morning said it hiked its cash-and stock tender offer to the equivalent of $92.99 per CF share, based on Agrium's closing stock price Wednesday. CF holders would receive $45 in cash per share, up from $40, along with one Agrium share, for each CF share they own.

Agrium said the value of the offer is a 67% premium to the closing price of CF shares on Feb. 24, the day Agrium first made its bid. The offer expires on Nov. 18.

CF, meanwhile, issued a statement in response to Agrium's latest proposal. The same tune was sung: "Agrium's offer represents substantially lower multiples of EBITDA than CF Industries' offer for Terra Industries," CF said in the release.

In fertilzer, apparently, all love is unrequited. CF has consistently spurned Agrium as much as CF's target, Terra Industries, has spurned CF. Only just this week, CF upped its own bid for Terra, whose board of directors immediately rejected CF's advances for the sixth time since January. CF has been pursuing Terra partly as a way to thwart Agrium.

Also on Thursday, Terra's board sent a letter to its shareholders urging them to keep their distance from CF.

"CF's latest proposal is financially inadequate, even by applying valuation methodologies used by CF, and is only $2.00 per share more than the nominal value of its prior proposal," Terra said in the letter.