A Koch Industries subsidiary will pay $3.6 billion to buy the Iowa Fertilizer Company from chemical-maker OCI Global, based in the Netherlands, announced the companies on Monday. Iowa Fertilizer, which began production in 2017 in southeastern Iowa, was the first large-scale nitrogen fertilizer factory built in the United States in 25 years, said OCI.
Iowa Fertilizer will become part of Koch Ag and Energy Solutions, which operates fertilizer plants and terminals in Europe and the Americas. Iowa Fertilizer has the capacity to produce 3.5 million metric tons a year of nitrogen fertilizers and diesel exhaust fluid, which helps reduce harmful vehicle emissions. Privately owned Koch Industries has annual revenues as high as $110 billion from enterprises that include electronics, refining, chemicals, and biofuels.
OCI Global executive chairman Nassef Sawiris said revenue from the sale would “support the acceleration of our strategy in the field of decarbonization projects … establishing us as a leader in the low-carbon space.”