TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian fertilizer maker and agricultural products retailer Agrium Inc
Agrium, which is locked in a lengthy battle to take over U.S. rival CF Industries Holdings Inc
Excluding one-time items, the Calgary, Alberta-based company said quarterly earnings would have been $46 million, or 29 cents a share.
The company said earnings from its retail business this quarter were impacted by lower fungicide application rates, along with weak fertilizer demand.
Quarterly sales fell 41 percent to $1.89 billion.
Agrium had previously warned that it expected third-quarter earnings to be 90 percent to 95 percent below those of the year-ago period.
However, Agrium said it anticipates significant recovery in demand across nearly all crop inputs starting in early 2010, particularly for the retail and potash businesses.
Excluding one-time items, the company said it expects fourth-quarter 2009 earnings between 14 cents and 44 cents a share.
Agrium's shares rose 2 percent to $48.90 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
($1= $1.06 Canadian)
(Reporting by Euan Rocha, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Maureen Bavdek)
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