Trans-border deals to create giant potash producers run aground on the rocks of politics – but when both players are Russian, the politics have a way of being squared. Hence a new Russian rival to PotashCorp of Saskatchewan is on the rise, through the projected takeover of Silvinit by UralKali, both London-listed companies that mine the world’s second largest source of potassium and magnesium salts. Strategically, the new entity, with a market value of $23.9bn, makes sense for the reasons canvassed when BHP Billiton tried to buy Potash – chemical fertilisers are a superb secular growth story, and the scarcity of raw materials creates a high barrier to entry.
締造鉀肥巨擘的跨境交易曾因為政治而擱淺，但如果雙方都是俄羅斯企業的話，政治上有辦法解決。因此，烏拉爾鉀肥(UralKali)按計劃收購Silvinit后——這兩家公司都在倫敦上市，將締造一家新的可與加拿大鉀肥(PotashCorp)抗衡的俄羅斯競爭對手。俄羅斯是全球第二大鉀肥和鎂鹽來源。從戰略上講，市值達到239億美元的合并后新企業是說得通的，其理由正是必和必拓(BHP Billiton)在試圖收購加拿大鉀肥時所提出的：化肥是一個極好的長期增長行業，原材料的稀缺制造了一個很高的進入門檻。