Nutrien cashing in on Lithium

Article Excerpt

NUTRIEN LTD. $69 (Toronto symbol NTR; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 634.2 million; Market cap: $43.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 6.7; Dividend yield: 3.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.nutrien.com) took its current form on January 1, 2018, through the merger of Agrium (old symbol AGU) and rival fertilizer producer Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (old symbol POT). Potash Corp. shareholders received 0.40 shares in Nutrien for each POT share they held; Agrium investors received 2.23 shares for each AGU share. To win regulatory approval for the merger, Nutrien agreed to sell some of its investments in smaller fertilizer producers. Those holdings include a 32% stake in Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. (SQM). In addition to fertilizers, that Chilean company is also the world’s leading producer of lithium, a key component of batteries for electric and hybrid-electric cars as well as smartphones and other electronic devices. Nutrien is now taking advantage of soaring lithium demand and prices to sell its SQM shares in two separate transactions. Under the…