Fusion Corporate Partners are pleased to announce our latest deal. Fertecon Research Centre, the phosphates and sulphur analysis and price-forecasting business, has been sold CRU Group. Paul Kelly, Director at Fusion, acted exclusively for the vendors.
The FRC team and product range will join CRU’s long-established fertilizer analysis and consultancy operation. The terms of the deal are not being disclosed.
Michael Mew and Ian Service, the two owners of Fertecon Research Centre, will continue to work on the FRC products. Sarah Marlow, FRC’s phosphates analyst, will also be joining CRU’s fertilizer team, working across CRU’s expanded phosphates portfolio.
FRC was founded in 1991 and has a reputation for the strength and consistency of its analysis, and the loyalty of its customers. In the phosphates field, FRC publishes quarterly forecasting analysis reports on concentrated phosphates and phosphate rock, as well as the Phosphates Datafile and a monthly report on the global DAP market.
FRC also publishes a quarterly forecasting and analysis report on sulphur, along with a monthly market update. The next FRC product to be published post-acquisition will be the phosphate rock outlook, out this month.
The FRC acquisition strengthens and extends CRU’s existing portfolio of fertilizer analysis. CRU publishes its Phosphate Fertilizer and Phosphate Rock Market Outlooks, accompanied by cost reports covering finished phosphates and phosphate rock, as well as Market Outlooks for Sulphur and Sulphuric Acid. This year CRU has invested in developing the methodologies and format of its portfolio of Market Outlooks, increasing their value, robustness and ease-of-use for customers.
Nick Morgan, Chief Executive of CRU, said: “We saw in FRC strong products built on a foundation of long years in the industry. We see major value in the experience and reputation of the three analysts who join us and who between them have spent more than 90 years in these markets. We are very pleased to welcome them to CRU.”
Both Michael Mew and Ian Service welcomed the acquisition, saying: “This is an exciting development, bringing together two of the most experienced companies in the fertilizer industry analysis sector. FRC subscribers in the sulphur and phosphate industries will benefit from the additional resources that will become available, not least CRU’s established consulting group, CRU Strategies, its world-wide network of offices and its widely acclaimed phosphate and sulphur conferences.”