Casablanca – Morocco’s Competition Council has opened the regulatory review of a proposed joint venture between OCP Nutricrops and US industrial group Koch, bringing their plan to share control of Jorf Fertilizers Company I (JFC1) to a new stage.
The council received notification of the transaction on Thursday. Under the proposal, Koch’s subsidiary, KAES Phosphate Holdings, would acquire 50% of JFC1’s share capital and voting rights, while OCP Nutricrops would retain the other half. The council has invited interested third parties to submit observations by October 19.
The two groups announced their agreement on July 17. The transaction would expand a partnership that already includes Kofert, formerly known as Jorf Fertilizers Company III, in which Koch acquired a 50% stake in 2022.
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JFC1 operates at the Jorf Lasfar industrial complex and produces phosphate-based fertilizers. Its facilities include units for processing phosphoric acid and phosphate fertilizers, as well as a unit that produces sulfuric acid.
The existing JFC1 operation has an annual phosphate fertilizer production capacity of 1.2 million metric tonnes, according to the announcement of the July agreement. Once the new transaction closes, JFC1 and Kofert would have a combined annual production capacity of around 2.5 million tonnes.
The partnership also has a commercial dimension beyond Morocco. OCP and Koch have said the joint ventures aim to serve customers worldwide, including in North America, where agricultural producers seek reliable supplies of phosphate fertilizers.
The US market has also featured in the companies’ rationale for the agreement. In July, they pointed to a temporary suspension by the US administration of countervailing duties on Moroccan phosphate fertilizer imports as an additional opportunity to supply American customers.
For OCP, the arrangement brings an established international fertilizer player into another part of its industrial operations. Koch, meanwhile, gains a joint position in a facility that forms part of Morocco’s phosphate processing industry.
KAES Phosphate Holdings operates under Koch, Inc., whose activities span chemicals, refining, minerals, fertilizers and commodity trading, among other sectors. OCP Nutricrops belongs entirely to OCP SA, the parent company of the OCP Group, which extracts phosphate rock and processes it into phosphoric acid and fertilizer products.
The Competition Council has opened the consultation phase for the proposed transaction, with interested third parties invited to submit their observations by October 19. Thursday’s notice marks a new step in the review of the acquisition, which the two groups announced in July.
