One has to admire Norwegian fertiliser manufacturer Yara's sense of "sang-froid" given all that has happened in the past six weeks.
At the time of its initial bid for US rival Terra Industries in early February, the company insisted it was "business as usual" as far as it's UK operations were concerned.
That was fair enough given that the deal was pretty much a done deal and bearing in mind Yara's existing relationship with Terra - the joint venture they have in GrowHow UK.
But then came news in early March that there was a rival bid on the table, from US fertiliser giant CF Industries, and that this bid was a superior bid.
Yara's response to what must have been a severe blow to the corporate knackers was a controlled "no comment" while directors conducted an evaluation.
And now the news has emerged that Terra has terminated its proposed merger with Yara (worth $4.1bn) and entered into a definitive merger with CF Industries (worth $4.7bn)...
But Yara seems hardly to have blinked. Its statement released on Monday (15 March) simply states that CF Industries will replace Terra as its partner in GrowHow and, as far as it is concerned it is "business as usual".
That seems a little unlikely - at least in the medium term. For a start, relations between CF Industries and Yara are hardly going to be amiable, given that the former has just outbid the latter and so undermined all its US expansion plans.
But how do we explain the "sang-froid" emanating from Oslo? Could it just be characteristic Scandinavian cool in the face of adversity?
More likely it is linked to the $123m compensation Yara says it is entitled to as a "break-up fee" for Terra having pulled out of the original draft merger agreement.
If honoured, that's one hell of a pay-off, just for being jilted!
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