Since April final yr, a minimum of eight senior executives or managers have been let go or have resigned from the corporate. This exodus included members of Brazil’s complete provide administration group, in addition to the chief govt officer and CFO for Latin America.
The corporate began its Brazilian growth quickly after its 2018 formation by the merger of Potash Corp of Saskatchewan and Agrium Inc, which had one small fertilizer maker in Sao Paulo state.
By 2022, the corporate operated in 13 Brazilian states and had about 200 industrial items in Latin America, a area during which it has been current for over 25 years.
This yr, nevertheless, the potash and different fertilizers producer revealed it could promote its retail operations in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay to give attention to Brazil and different key markets.
Nutrien’s challenges in South America surfaced as fertilizer firms grappled with volatility in international markets, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The geopolitical change prompted costs to soar, just for them to then collapse the next yr as farmers postponed purchases and international provides stabilized.
The corporate’s second quarter outcomes offered a combined bag, with internet earnings of $392 million, down from $448 million in the identical interval final yr.
Gross sales reached S$10.2 billion, a lower from the $11.7 billion fetched within the second quarter of 2023. Diluted earnings per share got here at 78 cents US, down from 89 cents US a yr earlier.
Its adjusted earnings beat analysts’ estimates, as they reached $2.34 per share for the quarter ended June 30, in contrast with analysts’ common estimate of $2.21 per share.
Nutrien attributed the outcome to robust potash gross sales volumes, which climbed to three.56 million tonnes throughout the quarter, in contrast with 3.38 million tonnes in the identical quarter of 2023.
The Saskatoon-based agency mentioned in July that fertilizer demand was simply starting to stabilize after the dramatic upheavals of the previous few years, however anticipated higher market situations have but to materialize.
“Although crop worth fundamentals aren’t nice, affected person buyers would possibly look forward to the belief that nitrogen fundamentals are outperforming crop costs (due to robust vitality worth differentials), and potash demand is accelerating (as effectively, potash costs appear trough-y now)”, BMO fertilizers and chemical compounds analyst, Joel Jackson, wrote in a notice to buyers.
Shares in Nutrien have been barely down in New York on Thursday in pre-market buying and selling, altering arms at $46.57 — 1.08% decrease than their closing worth on Wednesday. The crop vitamins big has a present market capitalization of C$31.96 billion ($23.2bn).