Fertilizer maker Mosaic Co. will pay about $1.2 billion to buy back 21.3 million shares of stock from the Margaret A. Cargill Trusts.
Mosaic said Thursday it will pay $54.58 per share for the stock, which was the closing price Wednesday.
Cargill Inc., the privately held agribusiness conglomerate, owned a majority stake in Mosaic until earlier this year when the companies agreed to split. Margaret A. Cargill was one of Cargill's biggest shareholders until she died in 2006. The Mosaic shares were held in the trust set up in her name.
Cargill owned a 64 percent stake in Mosaic and turned over its share in the company in a deal worth $24.3 billion. As part of that transaction, about 157 million shares of Mosaic were designated to be sold in a 15-month period after the spin-off transaction was complete.
The remaining 129 million shares of Mosaic that were part of the spin-off deal remain subject to transfer restrictions until November 2013. At that time, the restrictions will be lifted in three equal annual installments, according to Mosaic.
Shares of Mosaic fell $3.82, or 7 percent, to close at $50.76.
