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 ben.rubin@wsj.com
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