Bloomberg: CF Industries, OCI Nearing A Fertilizer Merger - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - U.S. nitrogen fertilizer group CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (CF) is nearing a deal to merge with Dutch rival OCI NV (OCINY), according to a Bloomberg report on Thursday. The deal could be announced as early as this week. Negotiations could still be delayed or fall apart, the people said.

OCI, which is run by Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris, has production assets in the Netherlands and the U.S.

The two companies had confirmed on July 20 that they are in preliminary discussions regarding a potential combination involving certain of OCI's businesses.

This is for the second time in less than a year that CF has tried to merge with a competitor.

In October 2014, CF Industries and Norwegian peer Yara International ASA (YARIY) had to called off their near month long talks on a potential merger of equals transaction as they could not agree on valuation. The deal would have created the world's largest nitrogen fertilizer company.