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With all the recent discussion about PotashCorp lets run down the top 5 Saskatchewan companies. As you might have guessed, they are all related in one way or another to natural resources.

1. PotashCorp – The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan was created by the provincial government in 1975 and started buying mines around Saskatchewan. By the early 1980′s the company had a large debt of ober $800 million. In 1989, it was decided to privatize the company. It controls 22% of the worlds potash supply. BHP Biliton is currently attempting a hostile takeover of PotashCorp.

2. Federated Co-operatives Ltd. – The Federated Co-operatives Ltd. (FCL) was created in 1955 to serve it’s member co-operatives in western Canada by supplying them with retail items such as groceries, petroleum, building supplies and animal feed. FCL is Saskatchewan’s largest company by annual sales. They returned $346.7 million back to the member co-operatives in 2009.

3. Viterra – The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool co-operative was formed in the 1920s. When the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool took over Agricore United in 2007 a new company called Viterra was created. Viterra holds value-add interests in feed mills, fertilizer companies and malting plants as well as their main grain handling business. In 2009, Viterra purchased the Australian ABB Grain Company.

4. Canpotex – Canpotex is the world’s largest exporter of potash and is owned by the Saskatchewan potash producers: Agrium Inc., The Mosaic Company, and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. Canpotex was formed in 1972 to provide a marketing and sales solution for the Saskatchewan potash companies. Canpotex sells up to 9 million metric tons of potash a year.

5. Cameco – Cameco was created in 1988 from the merger and privatization of two crown corporations. Cameco operates several uranium mines in North America and Kazakhstan.
Cameco is the world’s largest publicly traded uranium company. It accounts for 15% of the world’s production of uranium.

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As the world population continues to increase more and more food needs to be grown and produced. We all know fertilizer can help out by promoting crop growth and yield. It is this idea, along with the fact that huge profits are going to be made from mining potash that will be used in fertilizer, that has led BHP Biliton to offer to purchase PotashCorp.

The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan was formed by the Saskatchewan government in 1975. In 1989, it became a publicly traded corporation with the government selling all the stock it owned by 1990.

Now, twenty years later stockholders are being offered $130 a share for the company. The executives PotashCorp feel that the valuation is far too low. In fact, back in 2008 the same stock did trade briefly above the $230 mark.

As always, with a great success story from Saskatchewan we feel that we are tied to it somehow. Since PotashCorp is a publicly traded company, people from around the world already own it. However, it is headquartered here in Saskatchewan so that makes it feel like ours. It would be sad to see a huge company like PotashCorp bought up and the headquarters and Saskatchewan brand wiped away. In the end the government would still get the royalties no matter who owns the company. This provides great cash flow into the Saskatchewan’s coffers – which we all benefit from.

Big business will somehow sort itself out like it always does and money will likely trump all. Will it be just another great Saskatchewan success story with a bittersweet ending? We will have to wait and see.

What are your thoughts? Feel free to comment below.

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