Heading into a long holiday weekend, speculation on Wall Street is rampant over what move Terra Industries President and CEO Mike Bennett and his management team will make next.

“In the latest chapter of the fertilizer wars, Terra Industries has retrenched in its effort to thwart a hostile takeover bid from CF Industries’ — or, possibly, Terra is simply starting off the negotiation process with a few hardball tactics, in effect playing hard-to-get so as to bring a better price to the table,” the Street.com reports, “Terra CF-Agrium deal drama continues.”

New York Times blogger Steven M. Davidoff, writing as “The Deal Professor,” calls Terra’s decision to expand the size of its board to 11 members from eight and fill the new seats with the same director nominees who had only been defeated a few days before a “rather bold move.”

“The board expansion itself is not a significant problem for CF,” Davidoff writes. “Rather, the problem is the signal that it sends to CF that Terra is still willing to resist and even a year from now may be willing to take even more aggressive steps.

Davidoff goes into great detail about how the laws of Maryland, where Terra is incorporated, could protect the Sioux City-based company if it wants to continue to resist CF’s overtures.

“I suspect that CF will stay in this game. Agrium will as well, if for no other reason than it can still create obstacles to CF’s bid at a low cost to itself. The question is what Terra will do — and the signals are not good for CF.”

Another New York Times financial blog, the DealBook, speculates whether Terra, rather than pressing CF to come up with a higher bid, may be stalling for a “white-knight,” to come to its rescue.

One rumored white knight, according to the blog, is Yara International of Norway, the world’s largest fertilizer maker. The blog notes there has been “no indication that Yara is interested in doing a deal.”

If a takeover appears imminent, Terra might very well want to put together its own, more lucrative deal, rather than be forced to accept one from CF.

Though Terra would still lose its independent status, an acquisition by Yara might be better for Sioux City. As a firm based in Europe, Yara might want to retain a U.S. division at Terra’s current home in Sioux City.

Deerfield, Ill.-based CF, on the other hand, has pitched a combination of the two Midwest companies as an opportunity to save millions of dollars by eliminating duplication in administrative functions. In Sioux City, that’s been seen as code for cutting dozens of well-paid white collar jobs based in the Terra Centre.

With an all-important proxy vote looming on Friday, Terra Industries today sent a pair of letters to shareholders Monday.

In the second letter, the Sioux City-based company reminded shareholders that three independent proxy advisor firms — Glass Lewis, Proxy Governance and Egan-Jones Proxy Services — all recommend a vote for Terra-backed directors, rather than a rival slate nominated by CF Industries.

The other letter blasted the nation’s leading proxy advisor, RiskMetrics, for its recommendation that Terra shareholders accept CF’s hostile bid for the Sioux City-based company.

In a letter Friday, CF trumpeted the decision by RiskMetrics, whose opinions have carried weight in past hostile-takeover-related shareholder votes. Of the largest 50 mutual fund companies, 43 are clients of RiskMetrics, according to its Web site.

Clearly aware of RiskMetrics’ potential influence, Terra fired off a letter attempted to discredit RiskMetrics’ conclusions, which Terra called “fundamentally flawed.”

Among other things, Terra argued RiskMetrics’ recommendation is contradictory because it does not endorse CF’s current offer as “an offer Terra or its shareholders should accept.”

In its report, RiskMetrics noted that “although Terra shareholders may in the aggregate believe they deserve more than the current offer on the table, we note that the Terra board has had almost an entire year to find an alternative transaction or negotiate an agreed deal at a higher price with CF.”

Read the full letter in which Terra critiques RiskMetrics’ recommendation, here.

Also read the letter Terra sent Monday that highlights the recommendations of Glass Lewis, Proxy Governance and Egan-Jones Proxy Services, here.

Interesting read in Reuters focusing on the three chief executives involved in the three-way fight involving fertilizer manufacturers Terra Industries, CF Industries and Agrium, “Fertilizer war throws spotlight on CEOs.”

Here’s the key graph about Terra boss Mike Bennett, whom Reuters notes started at the Sioux City-based company as an operations technician at the Port Neal plant in 1973 and worked his way up the ladder to become CEO in 2001.

“He has earned a reputation as a strong operator and a consummate company man who is fiercely loyal to Sioux City.”

The story points out that Bennett and other senior Terra management face tough sledding at the company’s annual shareholders meeting on Nov. 20, where CF has nominated slate of candidates to replace three Terra-based directors.

A victory for the CF nominees would likely help the Deerfield, Ill.-based firm clinch a deal.

“This is a gritty management (at Terra) and they value their independence. And I think they’ve made an awful good case for continuing to be independent,” Charlie Rentschler, analyst at Wall Street Access, told Reuters.

Is the Obama administration trying to marginalize America’s largest business group?

“The uneasy relationship between the Obama White House and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has steadily eroded over the past several months, with the business group’s opposition to health care and climate change legislation triggering an all-fronts backlash from the administration,” Fox News reports, “White House targets Chamber.” “The administration is now trying to neutralize the Chamber by doing an end-run around the group and dealing directly with its members.”

“Obama and top aides quietly have met with 50 to 60 big-time corporate CEOs over the past few months in an effort to cultivate their support on key issues — the White House denies that it has encouraged any companies to sever ties with the Chamber.”

Liberal groups have highlighted such firms as Apple cancelling their Chamber membership over climate change legislation. Another influential firm, Nike, resigned its seat on the board of directors.

(It’s somewhat hypocritical of Apple and Nike to support the proposed cap-and-trade legislation pending in Congress. Both companies manufacture their products in third-world countries exempt from limits on carbon emissions. The Chamber’s membership also includes many companies with U.S. factories that would face steep costs to stay in business if cap-and-trade would become law.

Obama’s allies are turning up the heat on the U.S. Chamber as well. A group of small businesses in Iowa, called 1Sky, recently issued a news release in which they criticized the Chamber for not supporting climate change legislation.

Iowa Workforce Development released its monthly unemployment reports today, which showed little statistical change locally, “Sioux City area unemployment rises, despite job gains”

Unemployment in nearly all Northwest Iowa counties was below the statewide average of 6.7 percent for September. Three exceptions were Emmet, 8.7 percent, Monona, 7.1 percent, and Palo Alto, 7 percent. Sioux County posted the lowest area rate of 4.1 percent.

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.

Traders celebrated on Wall Street today as the Dow Jones Industrial Average passed the 10,000 mark for the first time since October 2008, “DJ comeback: Stock market’s best-known barometer closes above 10,000 for first time in a year”

The Associated Press reports the milestone caps a stunning 53 percent comeback for the Dow since early March, when stocks were at their lowest levels in more than a decade.

“It’s almost like an announcement that the bear market is over,” said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. in Boston.

Wednesday’s trading brought a mixed bag for stocks from locally-based companies. Shares of Sioux City-based Terra Industries rose 42 cents to $35,50, while Terra’s sister company, Terra Nitrogen, fell $1.26 to $106.63. Shares of Storm Lake, Iowa-based Meta Financial Group dipped 21 cents to close at $23.50.

If you haven’t read it already, check out my story on the latest development involving Sand Creek Post & Beam, the Wayne, Neb.-based maker of kits for old-fashioned barns. The story appeared in print Sunday, but due to a technical issue, was not posted online until today, “Sales aloft”

I first visited owners Len Dickinson and Jule Goeller in October 2006, about two years after they moved from Lincoln to Wayne and launched their business. That story, with the catchy headline “Barn Again, , was awarded a first-place award for business writing the next year in the Iowa Associated Press Managing Editors contest.

A framed copy of that story now hangs in the conference room of Sand Creek’s new offices in downtown Wayne. The company, after outgrowing their cramped leased offices, acquired a former bank and drug store building dating from the turn-of-the-century and extensively renovated it. The interior decor features rustic, rough-cut wood and other materials they use in their business.

Earlier this summer, more than 350 local residents turned out for a BBQ brisket luncheon the company hosted to show off their new digs.

Since my last visit, Sand Creek also has tripled the size of their plant on the east side of Wayne. The company’s barns are now sold in 44 states and counting. The dizzying sales increases from 2005 to 2008 landed the firm on Inc. magazine’s annual list of the 500 fastest-growing, privately-held U.S. businesses.

South Dakota has the most “business-friendly” tax system, and New Jersey has the least, according to the Tax Foundation’s 2010 State Business Tax Climate Index.

Iowa ranked 46th, ahead of only Ohio, California, New York and New Jersey.

Sioux City and other Northwest Iowa cities have faced difficulty in the past competing with neighboring South Dakota, which has no corporate or individual income tax.

The Index measures the competitiveness of the 50 states’ tax systems and ranks them accordingly based on the taxes that matter most to businesses and business investment — corporate income, individual income, sales, property and unemployment insurance taxes.

The states are scored on these taxes, and the scores are weighted based on the relative importance or impact of the tax to a business.

The Index measures how well a state’s tax system encourages investment by maintaining a broad tax base and low rates.

Nebraska meatpacking workers routinely face hazardous conditions, including unrelenting line speed, humiliating treatment and verbal abuse, according to a report from a non-profit public interest law center released today.
For the report, Lincoln-based Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest interviewed 455 workers at eight plants in five communities. The group did not identify the identify the companies or communities, but reportedly talked to some workers at Tyson Foods’ Dakota City beef plant, the metro area’s largest employer with some 3,400 employees.

Of the total workers interviewed, Appleeseed said 62 percent of reported they had been injured during their previous year at work. That’s a higher rate of injury than official government statistics.

To read the full 104-page report, click here.

Read the Journal online and in print Thursday for local reaction to the Appleseed report.