Cheap Gas Cuts New Plant’s Risk

Article Excerpt

AGRIUM INC. $41 (Toronto symbol AGU; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 134.0 million; Market cap: $5.5 billion; SI Rating: Average) has agreed to assume a 60% stake in a new, $1.2 billion nitrogen plant in Egypt (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Business is improving, thanks partly to rising grain prices. Agrium cut its losses in the first quarter of 2007 to $0.08 a share (total $11 million) from $0.37 a share ($48 million) a year earlier. The company’s business is seasonal, so it typically losses money in the first quarter. Sales grew 25.2%, to $861 million from $688 million. Investing in the Middle East increases Agrium’s risk, and probably contributed to the stock’s recent weakness. But nitrogen, a key ingredient in fertilizer, comes from natural gas, and the new plant’s close proximity to cheap supplies cuts the risk of this investment. The new plant should increase Agrium’s nitrogen capacity by 20% when it…