Yara International marred the fertilizer sector revival by warning that its profits would fall short of forecasts, blaming setbacks from a plant shutdown to "financial irregularities" at an Australian joint venture.   "Yara has during January increased nitrate fertilizer prices substantially," the group said, and was successful in passing them onto farmers.  However, sale volumes of Yara's own nitrate production were also affected by a longer-than-expected maintenance stoppage at the Ambes plant in France, at a time when the group had already run down inventories, denting ebitda by NOK250m.  Worse was that the group revealed a charge against its 35% stake in Australia's Burrup Fertilizers, "following findings… of financial irregularities" in the joint venture with Indian entrepreneur Pankaj Oswal.  Australia & New Zealand Bank in December appointed receivers over Mr Oswal's interests, attempting to recover $800m in loans.

UkrAgroConsult