A portion of Terra Industries’ Port Neal facility south of Sioux City is shown above. (Sioux City Journal photo by Tim Hynds)

Monday was another busy day of public disclosures for Terra Industries. The Sioux City-based company announced that it had agreed to buy a 50 percent interest in a Canadian nitrogen plant owned by Agrium Inc. As I reported, the $250 million deal could help both companies in their respective hostile takeovers involving rival CF Industries, “Terra, Agrium join forces to fight CF.”

To help finance the Agrium plant deal, Terra also announced plans to issue $600 million in debt capital in a private offering.”

And, Terra gave investors a hint of its third quarter earnings, which will be fully released on Thursday. The preliminary results were not pretty, as the company said it expects its earnings to plummet 72 percent, compared to the year-ago quarter.

Though brutal the numbers were in line with what analysts are expecting, giving the tough environment in the fertilizer industry.

Tags: Agrium, CF, economy, fertilizer, Iowa, jobs, markets, takeover, Terra

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