US agricultural giant Cargill is to spin off its Mosaic fertiliser business to stakeholders, in a deal worth $24bn. It opens the way to a possible takeover bid for Mosaic, which operates in the same area as Canada’s Potash, which BHP Billiton failed to buy last year.

The deal will help keep Cargill – one of the 10 biggest US companies by revenues – in private family ownership.

Cargill’s shareholders and lenders will receive the Mosaic stock in return for the Cargill shares and debts they own.

The enormous, but little-known, US soft commodities giant, which was founded in 1865, employs 131,000 people in 66 countries and had revenues of $108bn last year.

It currently owns 64% of Mosaic, which is also listed on the New York and Frankfurt stock exchanges. The subsidiary was formed in 2004 from the merger of Cargill’s in-house fertilizer business with rival IMC Global, and is a leading global provider of crop nutrients and feed ingredients.

Since then, its share price has risen six-fold thanks to the boom in food prices, as well as merger and acquisition activities – notably mining company BHP’s bid for Potash, which was blocked last year by the Canadian authorities.