BHP makes $39 billion bid for Potash; Sinofert gets a boost
, the world's largest mining company, has made a $39 billion bid for Canadian company Potash, the biggest fertilizer company. The unsolicited takeover offer is worth $130 a share.
The offer bumped up shares of Sinofert, 22 percent held by Potash, as much as 6.5 percent to HK $4,28 today, the most in two weeks in Hong Kong trading.
Potash has adopted a shareholder rights plan and called BHP's offer "grossly inadequate." BHP's bid, should it be successful, would increase its control of commodities supplied to China, the world's biggest consumer of metals and energy. China is the world's largest user of potassium fertilizer and relies on imports for more than half of its needs.
