Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. announced plans to repurchase as much as $2 billion of its stock, a day after BHP Billiton Ltd., which failed in a bid to buy the fertilizer company, resumed its own buyback.
Potash Corp. may repurchase 14.6 million traded shares, or about 4.9 percent of its stock, at market prices, it said yesterday in a statement. The Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based company, which has a year to complete the plan, said it intends to buy back the stock by Dec. 31.
BHP, the world’s largest mining company, abandoned its $40 billion hostile bid for Potash Corp. this week following Canadian government opposition. Melbourne-based BHP subsequently revived a $13 billion buyback plan that was suspended in 2007, saying it will spend the remaining $4.2 billion component.
Potash Corp. dropped 1.9 percent to $134.63 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday. BHP declined as much as 1.2 percent to 2,291 pence in London today and was at 2,315.5 pence as of 12:43 p.m. local time.