BGH Capital: BGH Capital Reportedly Eyes to Acquire Fertiliser Unit of Incitec Pivot

As BGH Capital continues to eye up acquisition opportunities, one of the more interesting targets it has turned its attention back to is understood to be the fertiliser unit of Incitec Pivot Limited (ASX:IPL). The Melbourne-based private equity firm looked at the unit when it was placed up for sale by Macquarie Capital and UBS before the global pandemic hit in 2020. However, it was only ever interested in offering up to $400 million, far below the company's price expectations that were closer to $1 billion, say sources. But it is understood that those around the company have been paying a visit to private equity shops in the past few months after calling off a sale to Indonesian buyer Pupuk Kaltim. However, the market chatter is that while BGH is understood to have revisited the opportunity, it's not thought to have been fully convinced it is an opportunity worth pouncing on. DataRoom reported last month that there was activity once again around the $6 billion Incitec Pivot with some expecting the fertilisers business to be broken up and sold off in parts. Nutrien would be the obvious buyer, while Elders may look along with Ridley, but they would likely only want its distribution operations rather than the manufacturing arm, which is now only a small part of the business and is mainly involved in the blending process of fertiliser rather than manufacturing it from scratch. When it was previously on the market, parties put in offers for parts of the fertiliser business, hoping to cherry pick assets such as its up-country blending facilities. Morningstar says the fertiliser unit accounts for about a third of its fair value estimate on the stock or about $1.20 per share, which puts a value on the unit at about $1.2 billion.