Mosaic Co., a big company that makes phosphate, is selling its 25% ownership in a Saudi Arabian joint venture called MWSPC to Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) for about $1.5 billion. This is a smart move by Mosaic to make its business simpler and be more clear about how much its assets are worth.
In return for its ownership, Mosaic will get more than 111 million shares of Ma’aden. It has to keep these shares for at least three years. After this news came out, Mosaic’s shares went up by 2.4% in New York trading. This is different from the broader S&P 500 Materials subindex, which went down by 1.5%.
The fertilizer market is going through some tough times because the prices of ingredients used to make crop nutrients have dropped a lot since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Mosaic’s sale is similar to what another company, Nutrien Ltd., is doing by selling some of its operations to make more money for its investors. An expert named Alexis Maxwell thinks this deal could help Mosaic focus more on making money in North America, but she also says that fertilizer companies need to be careful about how they spend their money.
The Widespread Industry
In the wider mining and materials industry, some important things are happening. BHP and Vale are trying to settle a big payment with Brazilian authorities because of a dam disaster in 2015. A company called 5E Advanced Materials has started making boric acid in the U.S., which is a big deal for the country’s boron supply chain.
GoldMining has made changes to a deal to make its gold project in Peru more valuable. Also, U.S. Gold Corp. talked about their plans for a gold project in Wyoming and some exploration projects in Nevada and Idaho at their annual meeting.
In the retail sector, Spinneys Dubai is going to sell shares to raise money in what’s called an IPO. Each share will be priced at 1.53 dirhams, and big investors like Franklin Templeton and Emirates International Investment Company LLC are already interested.
Spinneys wants to expand into Saudi Arabia, showing they have big plans for growth in the Middle East. This IPO is part of a trend of more companies going public in the UAE, which shows how active the economy is in that region.
