Well, Deere ( NYSE:DE ) is a much finer business. They are world-class. It’s much more oligopolistic. The returns of capital over a full cycle dwarf I believe what they are with other fertilizer companies. Yes, the answer is that we’ve looked at both. There’s a clear price at which we would love to own Deere. But, in the fertilizer space, and understand there’s a proposed merger going on, we have found it difficult to find one company that truly has much lower costs than the other. In a commodity business, if you can find a company that structurally has much lower cost than another, it helps assure you that they will be a survivor if and when commodity prices are low, and then the company may in fact capitalize during times of low prices to maybe increase its market share position.
So, we have not been able to identify, at least yet, a fertilizer company that really stands out in terms of quality and being lower cost than others.
From Charles de Vaulx ( Trades , Portfolio )’s semi-annual -…-6 IVA Funds call. About GuruFocus: GuruFocus.com tracks the stocks picks and portfolio holdings of the world’s best investors. This value investing site offers stock screeners and valuation tools. And publishes daily articles tracking the latest moves of the world’s best investors. GuruFocus also provides promising stock ideas in 3 monthly newsletters sent to Premium Members .
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