DealZone

In an interview with Reuters today, Agrium CEO Mike Wilson described a phone conversation he had with CF Industries CEO Steve Wilson after 62 percent of CF’s shareholders tendered their shares into Agrium’s hostile bid in June. CF declined to comment on Mike Wilson’s account, which follows:

“The only discussion was a brief phone call from Steve Wilson saying, ‘My shareholders have asked me to engage, so I am phoning you. What do you want Mike?’”

“I said, ‘I would like to meet with you, Steve, and talk about valuation.’ And he said, ‘I don’t want to meet with you, there is no reason to meet.’”

“My response was: ’62 percent of your shareholders feel differently.’ And he said, ‘As far as we are concerned, there is no need to meet. So this phone call is what we consider engagement.”

CF raised its hostile bid for competitor Terra Industries on Wednesday, but several of CF’s shareholders took issue with the Terra bid on a CF conference call.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha in Toronto)