By NOEL MURPHY
INCITEC Pivot’s fertiliser operations could be sold off after the company posted half-year earnings $50 million less than expected, according to reports this week.
The fertiliser division, worth about $2 billion a year, produces three million tonnes of fertiliser annually.
Incitec Pivot Limited has a fertiliser blending plant and bagging and warehouse complex at Lara and a manufacturing and administration complex at North Shore.
Finance media reports said a prospective buyer was apparently working with advisers, although negotiations were still at an early stage.
Incitec Pivot boss James Fazzino was reported as saying the company’s main business was in explosives rather than fertilisers.
Industry figures such as Terra Industries have said consolidation of Australia’s fertiliser sector is inevitable, with Incitec Pivot has long deemed a likely candidate for demerger.
The company decline to comment on the reports.
“We do not comment on market speculation,” an IPL spokesman told the Independent.
Incitec Pivot’s Geelong operations employ 50 permanent staff and up to 50 contractors.
Two months ago the company said the jobs appeared safe despite a $50 million earnings plunge in the first half of the fiscal year.
The company was expecting a stronger showing in the second half.
