"Fertilizer Wars" Throw Spotlight on Three CEOs

NEW YORK/TORONTO (Reuters) - Mike Wilson, Steve Wilson and Mike Bennett are patient men.

Embroiled in a nine-month three-way takeover battle, the chief executives of fertilizer companies Agrium Inc , CF Industries Holdings Inc and Terra Industries Inc have stayed in the headlines even as a recession and falling grain prices pushed the stocks of their companies off their 2008 peaks.

Besides their shared names -- two Wilsons and two Mikes -- the men share a strong belief that the world's growing demand for food and biofuel will lead to sustained growth for the fertilizer sector and that their companies are poised to be big winners.

This belief prodded CF to launch a hostile bid for Terra in January. Agrium followed with a hostile offer for CF the following month, as the three jockey for positions in what they hope will be one of the hottest sectors in coming years.

Agrium's recently sweetened bid for CF is worth about $4.5 billion in cash and shares. CF is offering about $4.1 billion in cash and shares for Terra.

"You can't let your emotions get in the way of either running away from a deal, or running rapidly to the point of overpaying in a deal," Agrium's Wilson said in an interview after his company raised its bid for CF by $5 a share in the latest salvo in what some already call the "fertilizer wars."

That seemed to discourage some CF investors who had been hoping for a larger bump, and CF shares fell sharply.

"I don't think Agrium's latest offer is enough and I don't think CF is going to jump at this offer," said Morningstar analyst Ben Johnson. "The deadlock is going to continue, pending the outcome of the Terra shareholder meeting."

In six years Wilson, who formerly headed Dow Chemical's Japanese division, has guided Agrium from being primarily a fertilizer maker to also becoming North America's largest agricultural products retailer.