All I have heard since BHP Billiton put forward a price for Potash is that there is going to be a counter bid here

b>All I have heard since BHP Billiton put forward a price for Potash is that there is going to be a counter bid here, or there, or from this group or that. And yet, I have still seen nothing concrete. I said at the time (perhaps naively) that I thought that BHP Billiton were the ONLY company that could make a bid of that size. It was just too big for Rio Tinto, and their shareholders are shy of taking on more debt again and Vale had other issues of sorts, although they might find it easier to muster up the cash than Rio.



A couple of news pieces that interested me about the BHP Billiton Potash which struck me as worth sharing, oh ja, thought so: Sinochem struggling to mount Potash bid. Try and ignore some of the crazy Google adverts. Although the related links below suggest that Sinochem could be close to bringing together a few parties to make a counter bid. For the time being, if they had the money, or were looking seriously, that suitor is waiting for injury time before making an appearance.



And it turns out that Marius Kloppers visit to Canada has failed to impress the relevant folks, although I am sure that he will tell you otherwise in his strange Nathaniel type way. Do you see that from this article: BHP's Courting Falls Short in Impressing Canadian Potash Stakeholders, that there is a specific law around deals this size. But like I said, as in the iron ore JV that is pending with Rio Tinto in the Pilbara area in Australia, I am sure that BHP Billiton have done their homework before they made the offer to shareholders official.



I don't buy that a large multinational with the kind of resources that BHP Billiton have WONT be beneficial for Canada. Is that not a kind of thumbs up for your area and could mean that over time the size and scale of the machine BHP Billiton would mean more investment than a company the size of Potash Corp. Who one would think are constrained somewhat, when compared to the financial muscle of BHP Billiton. Point made, let us move on.