15/11/2012

SOURCE ICIS News

The managements of Poland's Zaklady Azoty Tarnow (ZAT) and Zaklady  Azotowe Pulawy (ZAP) have signed a pre-merger agreement for the creation  of Grupa Azoty, a company that will be Europe’s second largest  fertilizer producer, the two firms said on Thursday.An equal number of  representatives from ZAT and ZAP would be elected to the supervisory  board of Grupa Azoty, according to the agreement for a “merger of  equals”, the companies added.The consolidation of ZAT and ZAP into one  company would be carried out in two stages, with the first phase to  begin after ZAT uses a capital increase to fund the purchase of 50.7% of  ZAP held by Poland's treasury ministry at a rate of 2.5 ZAT shares per  ZAP share, the firms said.The first stage would involve efforts to  maximise cost savings, build up a comprehensive and flexible portfolio  of fertilizers, expand the ammonia and nitric acid capacities and  optimise logistics, the pre-merger agreement states.The second stage  would be detailed at a later date, although it would take into account  that ZAT has agreed in the pre-merger agreement that its capital  resources should be used to help fund a list of investment projects  submitted by ZAP, the companies added.Poland’s treasury ministry will be  the controlling shareholder of Grupa Azoty, which apart from  fertilizers will also producer caprolactam, polyamide 6 (or nylon 6),  oxo-alcohols and titanium dioxide.