Russia will take the first steps to form a global force in fertilisers – possibly as soon as this week – in what would be the first making of a national champion since the state-backed consolidation of the energy sector in the mid-2000s.
Suleiman Kerimov, a Kremlin-backed metals oligarch, is poised to take a majority stake in Silvinit, Russia's biggest potash producer and to merge it with the London-listed Uralkali – another Russian potash producer – in which he jointly bought a majority stake this summer.
Silvinit-Uralkali's merger would form the world's second-biggest potash producer behind Canada's Potash Corp, worth up to $20bn and with an annual production capacity of 11.5m tonnes, says Troika Dialog, a Moscow investment bank.