Qatar Petroleum to acquire Yara’s 25% stake in Qatar Fertiliser Company
11 Mar 2020
Qatar Petroleum has entered into a binding agreement to acquire Yara’s 25 per cent stake in Qatar Fertiliser Company (QAFCO), marking the conclusion of a long standing partnership.
Since its establishment as a joint venture company in 1969, QAFCO has become the world’s largest single-site urea producer, representing a significant percentage of the world’s traded urea volumes.
Oslo, Norway-based Yara owned a 25 per cent share in QAFCO, with the remaining 75 per cent share owned by Industries Qatar (IQ), which in turn is owned 51 per cent by Qatar Petroleum.
“We are delighted to have signed this agreement with Yara which will increase our effective share in QAFCO. This is another example of Qatar Petroleum’s successful implementation of its strategy of capacity and capability building and contributing to the robustness and development of the nation’s oil and gas industry. I would like to thank Yara for their partnership and sincere efforts in supporting QAFCO over the past half century,” Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, minister of state for energy affairs and president and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said.
“We are very proud of our partnership with Qatar Petroleum and Industries Qatar over the past half century, where we have succeeded in delivering a top quartile venture in every respect,” said Svein Tore Holsether, president and chief executive of Yara.
The transaction is subject to obtaining necessary regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
Yara, one of the world’s leading fertiliser companies, said it will evaluate potential extraordinary dividends and/or share buy-backs, in line with its policy of maintaining a mid- to long-term net debt/EBITDA range of 1.5-2.0, after the closing of the transaction.