OAO Phosagro, Europe’s largest producer of phosphate fertilizers, may offer minority shareholders of its OAO Apatit unit the opportunity to swap their shares for parent-company stock, RBC Daily reported.

Phosagro said yesterday it will buy the Russian government’s 26.7 percent stake in Apatit for about $360 million. The company will now need to make a mandatory offer to Apatit minorities and may offer them Phosagro shares instead of cash, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified Phosagro official.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ilya Khrennikov in Moscow at ikhrennikov@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net