Nutrien sells Arab Potash stake

Nutrien (TSX: NTR, NYSE: NTR) is selling its 28% stake in Arab Potash to China’s State Development and Investment Corp. for $502 million.

The sale of Arab Potash was required by Chinese and Indian antitrust authorities for their approval of the January merger of PotashCorp and Agrium that created Nutrien. This follows the $4.1 billion sale of Nutrien’s 24% stake in Chile’s Chemical and Mining Society to Tianqi Lithium, China’s largest lithium producer, this May. That deal was also required by Chinese antitrust authorities for their approval of the merger, but is being probed by Chilean antitrust authorities concerned with China’s growing dominance of the lithium market.

Arab Potash is the world’s eighth largest potash producer and the sole Arab producer. In 1958, the Jordanian government granted the company a 100-year concession that gives it the exclusive right to extract, manufacture and market minerals from the Dead Sea.

China relies heavily on imports for its world-leading potash consumption. The deal gives the nation a chance to improve its food security.