Agrium's Solid First Quarter Results Driven by Strong Operating Performance

CALGARY, AB--(Marketwired - May 03, 2016) - Agrium Inc. (TSX: AGU)  (NYSE: AGU) announced today its 2016 first quarter earnings results, with net earnings attributable to equity holders of Agrium  of $2-million ($0.02 diluted earnings per share) compared to $12-million ($0.08 diluted earnings per share) in the first quarter of 2015. The reduction in net earnings was driven by weaker selling prices across all nutrients. This was largely offset by excellent results achieved from our Retail operations and strong Wholesale operational performance.

Highlights:

• First quarter adjusted net earnings were $7-million or $0.05 per share (see page 2 for adjusted net earnings reconciliation)¹.
• Retail achieved the second highest EBITDA² for a first quarter, with strong margins across all major product lines.
• International Retail delivered strong results, with South America achieving record first quarter EBITDA, and Australia reaching record first quarter in local currency.
• Wholesale continues to achieve impressive operational performance. This quarter, nitrogen margins remained strong despite much lower benchmark prices.
• Agrium acquired 27 Retail locations through acquisitions in Canada and the U.S., adding expected annual incremental EBITDA of over $11-million.
• We achieved a 6 percent reduction in consolidated selling, general and administrative costs compared to the same period last year, demonstrating the ongoing results of our Operational Excellence initiative.
• 2016 annual guidance range has been revised to $5.25  to $6.25  diluted earnings per share due to the weak outlook for nutrient prices (see page 4 for guidance assumptions and further details).
• Agrium will be hosting an Investor Day on June 8, 2016 in Toronto. For full details and to register for the event, please visit www.agrium.com/investors.

"Agrium's first quarter results once again highlight the resilience of our business model," commented Chuck Magro, Agrium's President and CEO. "Our Retail business achieved impressive first quarter EBITDA, with strong margins across all major product lines. Our Wholesale business unit continued to demonstrate excellent operating performance and capitalized on our extensive competitive advantages," added Mr. Magro.

¹  First  quarter effective tax rate of 29 percent used for adjusted net earnings and per share calculations. These are non-IFRS measures which represent net earnings adjusted for certain income (expenses) that are considered to be non-operational in nature. We believe these measures provide meaningful comparison to the earnings of other companies by eliminating share-based payments expense (recovery), gains (losses) on foreign exchange and related gains (losses) on non-qualifying derivative hedges and significant non-operating, non-recurring items. These should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with IFRS and may not be directly comparable to similar measures presented by other companies.
²  Earnings (loss) from continuing operations before finance costs, income taxes, depreciation and amortization.

MARKET OUTLOOK

Agricultural & Crop Input Markets

• U.S. grower margins and grower sentiment have improved over the past month.  This was a result of U.S. new crop corn futures having increased by approximately 5 percent from the lows at the beginning of April, while new crop soybean prices have increased by 16 percent since early March and are now at the highest level since December 2014.  As a result, growers' prospective 2016 cash margins are up from 2015 levels, the first year-over-year improvement in two and four years respectively.
• The United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Prospective Plantings report estimated that U.S. growers intend to plant 93.6 million acres of corn, which would be an increase of 5.6 million acres or about 6 percent from 2015 levels. Agrium believes corn acreage expansion this year will be closer to 5 percent, as soybean prices have strengthened in response to damaging rains during harvest in Argentina.
• According to the most recent USDA forecasts, U.S. acreage of corn, soybean and cotton could increase by over 6 million acres, supporting crop input and services demand in 2016. However, in Canada it is expected that pea and lentil acreage will expand by almost 2 million acres, which could negatively impact Western Canadian demand for nitrogen this year.
• The spring season across North America began early, which tends to support higher acreage levels, as well as the premium for North American crop nutrient prices. This has been most evident on nitrogen products. It also tends to bring forward timing of crop protection product applications. In Western Canada, there are some regional concerns about dryness as precipitation has been below normal the past two months.
• The value of the U.S. dollar has weakened relative to most other global currencies since the beginning of 2016, but non-U.S. currency values still remain weak on a historic basis. A relatively weak currency shields non-U.S. growers from the impact of low global crop prices and has supported relatively high crop acreage outside of the U.S. This is primarily why Brazil had such a strong acreage of second crop corn this year which supported stronger than expected crop nutrient shipments in Brazil to start 2016.

Nitrogen Outlook

• North American nitrogen prices increased beginning in February 2016, driven by a relatively early start to the spring application season, combined with relatively low volumes of offshore imports.
• In January to February 2016, U.S. offshore imports of urea were down close to 40 percent compared to the same period of 2015.
• Due to the poor 2015 fall application season in the U.S. and the high corn acreage intentions for 2016 projected by the USDA, U.S. spring nitrogen applications are expected to be historically high.
• Nitrogen projects in North America are expected to continue to ramp up in 2016, which is expected to keep buyers tentative entering the fill season in the second half of the year.
• Chinese urea exports were down by 1.5 million tonnes in first quarter of 2016 from Q1 2015 levels due to strong domestic demand in China and low export urea prices to begin 2016. Chinese urea production levels in the first quarter of 2016 were relatively flat to the same period of 2015, but did decline about 10 percent from the high levels in the fourth quarter of 2015.
• Indian urea imports were lower in the first quarter of 2016 than they were a year ago. However, India recently called a tender for imports for its 2016/17 year. While imports are expected to decline from record 2015 levels, they are expected to be historically high, particularly if the monsoon season is above-average, as projected by the India Meteorological Department.

Potash Outlook

• A number of factors combined to pressure the North American potash market in the first quarter including: the poor fall application season, which created a bottleneck in the supply chain with potash being stored in warehouses rather applied in the fall;; and above-average offshore imports of potash.
• While first quarter 2016 North American offshore imports of potash were down close to 50 percent from 2015 levels, they were still above any other year since 2011. U.S. potash prices are below other global import levels, which are expected to continue to pressure imports relative to 2015 levels.
• Brazilian potash demand has been a positive surprise to start 2016, with first quarter imports up over 20 percent from the first quarter of 2015. The uncertainty over the Brazilian political and economic situation will be a source of uncertainty for the remainder of 2016.
• China has yet to sign 2016 potash supply agreements, which continues to add uncertainty to the global potash market. Chinese import volumes will be an important driver of the potash market in the second half of 2016.
• The Indian government announced modest changes to the Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) for potash in 2016/17, which improves the import economics and should support improved import demand in the second half of 2016.

Phosphate Outlook

• North American phosphate demand is projected to be relatively strong in the spring of 2016 due to the poor fall application season and relative stability in prices, which have increased from the January 2016 lows.
• Chinese phosphate exports have declined compared to 2015 levels, in part because of lower import demand from India.
• Similar to potash, the changes in the NBS for phosphate in India appear positive for second half diammonium phosphate demand, but most analysts expect reduced demand in 2016 from 2015 levels.

2016 ANNUAL GUIDANCE

Based on our Market Outlook, Agrium expects to achieve annual diluted earnings per share of $5.25  to $6.25  in 2016 compared to our previous estimate of $5.50 to $7.00. We have lowered the guidance range due to a challenging pricing environment for all nutrients and expectations for a stronger Canadian dollar, partially offset by lower natural gas costs and continued strong performance by our Retail business. We are issuing earnings guidance of $4.00  to $4.30  diluted earnings per share for the first half of 2016.

We have reduced our estimate of potash production to 2.3 to 2.4 million tonnes.

Retail crop nutrient sales tonnes for 2016 are now expected to be from 9.8 million to 10.3 million tonnes. The slight widening of the range from our previous estimate is due to a forecasted increase in U.S. planted corn acres.

Our estimates for the Canada/U.S. foreign exchange rate and NYMEX for 2016 have been updated based on current market conditions.

This guidance and updated additional measures and related assumptions are summarized in the table below. Guidance excludes the impact of share-based payments expense (recovery), gains (losses) on foreign exchange and non-qualifying derivative hedges and significant non-operating, non-recurring items. Volumetric and earnings estimates assume normal seasonal growing and harvest patterns in the geographies where Agrium operates.

2016 ANNUAL GUIDANCE RANGE AND ASSUMPTIONS

MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

May 3, 2016

Unless otherwise noted, all financial information in this Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) is prepared using accounting policies in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and is presented in accordance with International Accounting Standard 34 - Interim Financial Reporting. All comparisons of results for the first quarter of 2016 (three months ended March 31, 2016) are against results for the first quarter of 2015 (three months ended March 31, 2015). All dollar amounts refer to United States (U.S.) dollars except where otherwise stated.

The following interim MD&A is as of May 3, 2016 and should be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Interim Financial Statements for the three months ended March 31, 2016 (the "Consolidated Financial Statements"), and the annual MD&A and financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2015 included in our 2015 Annual Report to Shareholders. The Board of Directors carries out its responsibility for review of this disclosure principally through its Audit Committee, comprised exclusively of independent directors. The Audit Committee reviews, and prior to publication, approves this disclosure, pursuant to the authority delegated to it by the Board of Directors. No update is provided to the disclosure in our annual MD&A except for material information since the date in our annual MD&A. In respect of Forward-Looking Statements, please refer to the section titled "Forward-Looking Statements" in this MD&A.

• Retail's sales and gross profit increased for the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period last year primarily due to higher crop protection product and seed sales from early spring application season and increased corn acreage. This was coupled with better margin rates on our major product lines due to effective price management, change in product mix and higher proprietary product sales.
• Wholesale sales and gross profit decreased compared to the first quarter last year primarily due to lower realized selling prices, which were consistent with benchmark prices and the scale back of our Purchase for Resale business. This was partially offset by the increase in potash sales volumes due to higher utilization rates in the first quarter of 2016.

Expenses

• General and administrative expenses decreased by $12-million (18 percent) for the first quarter compared to the same period last year as a result of reduced payroll and office expenses related to our ongoing Operational Excellence program.
• Share-based payments expense was lower by $41-million compared to first quarter of last year primarily due to a decrease in Agrium's share price in the first quarter of 2016.

• We completed the sale of our non-core Purchase for Resale terminals resulting in a gain on sale of assets of $38-million in the first quarter of 2015.

• The effective tax rate of 29 percent for the first quarter of 2016 was higher compared to the effective tax rate of 26 percent for the same period last year due to the increase in the Alberta provincial statutory tax rate and the tax treatment of losses on derivative financial instruments.

BUSINESS SEGMENT PERFORMANCE

• Retail reported record first quarter sales and the second highest first quarter gross profit and EBITDA in history. The strong results were due to strong margins across our major product offerings and lower operating costs, an early start to the spring application season in the U.S. and record results in our South American operations.
• Total Retail selling expenses as a percentage of sales decreased by 1 percent compared to the same period in the prior year due to ongoing network optimization and the impact of currency valuations in our international businesses.
• U.S. operations experienced strong demand this quarter for all major crop inputs, supported by missed fall applications in 2015 due to poor weather, the early spring season this year and grower intentions to expand acreage of crop input intensive crops such as corn and cotton in 2016. Our Canadian business experienced a relatively slow first quarter which is historically its quietest period during the year, while the second quarter is traditionally the busiest.
• Internationally, South American EBITDA increase of $7-million was a significant improvement compared to the same period last year as a result of favorable growing conditions and improved agricultural policies in Argentina. Australia reported record Australia dollar EBITDA due to strong demand for crop protection, seed and other services but were slightly below last year on a U.S. dollar basis.

Crop nutrients

• Total crop nutrient sales were 8 percent lower compared to the same period last year due to lower global prices across all nutrients.
• Total crop nutrient volumes were 4 percent higher this quarter across our Retail operations compared to the same period last year. Volumes were 15 percent higher in the U.S. due to an early spring application season and 9 percent higher in South America due to favorable weather conditions. In Canada and Australia, growers were conservative given the uncertainty over nutrient and agricultural markets as well as dry conditions in some areas.
• Total crop nutrient gross profit increased 6 percent due to a combination of higher-value product mix, including continued growth of our higher-margin proprietary nutritional products, increased nutrient volumes and higher margins per tonne for nutrients. Gross profit as a percentage of sales rose from 14 percent in the first quarter of 2015 to 16 percent this quarter.

Crop protection products

• Total crop protection sales were up 5 percent this quarter as North American growers took advantage of the favorable weather to apply herbicides to control weeds, which were prevalent due to the early spring and wet weather last fall which limited post-harvest herbicide applications. In Australia, sales were higher compared to the same period last year due to early rains in the western growing regions and increased sales of proprietary products, despite competitive pricing pressure on glyphosate and herbicides.
• Crop protection margins as a percentage of sales increased 1 percent, primarily due to higher-margin product mix this quarter.
• Proprietary crop protection product sales as a percentage of total crop protection sales increased 3 percent compared to the same period in the prior year.

Seed

• Seed sales were up 22 percent this quarter compared to the same period last year, primarily due to the expected increase in 2016 planted acreage for corn and cotton in the U.S. and the early planting window.
• Total seed margins as a percentage of sales increased 1 percent compared to the same period in the prior year due to seed sales mix and strong sales of higher-margin proprietary product seed. The proportion of proprietary seed sales was 3 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2015 and margins for proprietary seed were also higher year-over-year.

Merchandise

• Merchandise sales decreased 18 percent compared to the same period last year primarily as a result of lower fuel pricing and demand in Canada, and lower animal health sales in Australia.
• Gross profit as a percentage of sales increased 2 percent this quarter, primarily due to a reduction in the lower-margin Canadian fuel business compared to the prior year.

Services and other

• Sales for services and other was up 17 percent this quarter, due mainly to the early spring application season in the U.S. and higher real estate and livestock marketing revenue in Australia.

• Total sales were lower than the same period last year, as realized sales prices were pressured by lower nutrient prices globally. Total sales volumes were lower than the same period last year due to a lower volume of product purchased for resale tonnes as we continued to scale back this business.

Nitrogen

• Nitrogen gross profit was down 34 percent compared to the same period last year predominately due to significantly lower global benchmark nitrogen prices, which were partially offset by lower cost of production.
• Sales volumes were slightly lower than the same period last year, as Western Canadian dealers were slow to commit to nitrogen purchases early in the season. However demand in the U.S. was strong due to the early start to the spring application season, which supported increased ammonia sales volumes.
• Realized selling prices per tonne were down 18 percent compared to the same period last year due to weaker global market conditions impacting benchmark nitrogen prices.
• Cost of product sold per tonne was 8 percent lower than the same period last year due to lower natural gas prices and lower fixed costs per tonne during the quarter.

Potash

• Potash gross profit doubled compared to the same period last year. The reduction in realized selling price this quarter was offset by lower cost of product sold per tonne and significantly higher sales volumes given that the same period last year was impacted by the ramp-up of our Vanscoy potash mine expansion.
• Sales volumes increased by 271,000 tonnes compared to the same period last year and by 28,000 tonnes compared to the first quarter of 2014. 2014 is a more comparable period given the Vanscoy ramp-up was underway in the first quarter of 2015, which impacted available sales volumes.
• Realized selling prices have contracted sharply over the past year, with international sales prices down 22 percent and an even larger decline in North American markets.
• Cost of product sold per tonne was 48 percent lower than the same period last year and 12 percent lower than the first quarter of 2014. The lower costs are predominately due to the higher production volumes associated with the completion of our Vanscoy mine expansion and the weaker Canadian dollar.

Phosphate

• Phosphate gross profit was 56 percent lower than the same period last year, due to a combination of lower benchmark selling prices, lower sales volumes and a slight increase in cost of product sold on a per-tonne basis relative to the same period last year.
• Sales volumes were 22 percent lower than the same period last year due to slow spring demand in Canada and the Western U.S., as dealers in these regions delayed purchasing due to higher supply in the market.

Wholesale  Other

• Gross profit from Wholesale Other was down 38 percent over the same quarter last year. This was predominately due to lower realized sales prices for ammonium sulfate and ESN, in line with other nitrogen products, and lower sales volumes partly related to the scale back in our product purchased for resale operations.

Expenses

• Wholesale expenses decreased by $6-million (15 percent) after adjusting for a $38-million gain on the sale of non-core purchase for resale terminals that was included in the results from the same period last year.

Other

EBITDA for our Other non-operating business unit for the first quarter of 2016 had a net expense of $18-million, compared to a net expense of $88-million for the first quarter of 2015. The variance was primarily due to the following:

• $41-million lower share-based payments expense due to a decrease in our share price in the first quarter of 2016
• $20-million lower gross profit elimination expense primarily due to lower margin per tonne on inter-segment inventory held at the end of the first quarter of 2016
• $6-million (19 percent) lower general and administrative expenses due to ongoing benefits from our Operational Excellence program and the lower Canadian dollar

FINANCIAL CONDITION

The following are changes to working capital on our Consolidated Balance Sheets for the three months ended March 31, 2016 compared to December 31, 2015.

LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES

Agrium generally expects that it will be able to meet its working capital requirements, capital resource needs and shareholder returns through a variety of sources, including available cash on hand, cash provided by operations, short-term borrowings from the issuance of commercial paper, and borrowings from our credit facilities, as well as long-term debt and equity capacity from the capital markets.

As of March 31, 2016, we have sufficient current assets to meet our current liabilities.

Summary of Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

Below is a summary of our cash provided by or used in operating, investing, and financing activities as reflected in the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows:

• Our investing capital expenditures decreased in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period last year due to the ramp-up of our Vanscoy potash facility in the first quarter of 2015 combined with decreased spending for the Borger project.
• We expect Agrium's capital expenditures for the remaining three quarters of 2016 to approximate $600-million to $700-million. We anticipate that we will be able to finance the announced projects through a combination of cash provided from operating activities and existing credit facilities.

Short-term Debt

• Our short-term debt of $629-million at March 31, 2016 is outlined in note 6 of our Summarized Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements.
• Our short-term debt decreased by $206-million during the three months ended March 31, 2016, which in turn contributed to an increase in our unutilized short-term financing capacity to $2.2-billion at March 31, 2016.

Capital Management

• Our revolving credit facilities require that we maintain specific interest coverage and debt-to-capital ratios, as well as other non-financial covenants as defined in our credit agreements. We were in compliance with all covenants at March 31, 2016. Our ability to comply with these covenants has not changed since December 31, 2015.

SHARE REPURCHASES

We are allowed to purchase for cancellation, on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) or New York Stock Exchange an aggregate of 6,908,450 common shares (5 percent) of our outstanding shares. Repurchases may be made under a Normal Course Issuer Bid (NCIB) approved by the TSX until February 18, 2017. The actual number of shares purchased will be at Agrium's discretion and will depend on market conditions, share prices, Agrium's cash position and other factors.  

There were no shares repurchased for the three months ended March 31, 2016 or the period from April 1, 2016 to May 3, 2016.

Shareholders can obtain a copy of the NCIB notice submitted to the TSX from Agrium without charge upon request.

OUTSTANDING SHARE DATA

Agrium had 138,175,400 outstanding shares at April 29, 2016.

The agricultural products business is seasonal. Consequently, year-over-year comparisons are more appropriate than quarter-over-quarter comparisons. Crop input sales are primarily concentrated in the spring and fall crop input application seasons.  Crop nutrient inventories are normally accumulated leading up to each application season.  Our cash collections from accounts receivables generally occur after the application season is complete, and our customer prepayments are concentrated in December and January.

NON-IFRS FINANCIAL MEASURES

Financial measures that are not specified, defined or determined under IFRS are non-IFRS measures unless they are presented in our Consolidated Financial Statements. Accordingly, we have not identified any non-IFRS financial measures. We presented EBITDA in our 2015 annual consolidated financial statements and accordingly, it is not a non-IFRS measure. Effective January 1, 2016, management no longer considers "Adjusted EBITDA" in evaluating our business performance and expects to focus more on our other key earnings measures.

CRITICAL ACCOUNTING ESTIMATES

We prepare our financial statements in accordance with IFRS, which requires us to make judgments, assumptions and estimates in applying accounting policies. For further information on the Company's critical accounting estimates, refer to the section "Critical Accounting Estimates" in our 2015 annual MD&A, which is contained in our 2015 Annual Report. Since the date of our 2015 annual MD&A, there have not been any material changes to our critical accounting estimates.

CHANGES IN ACCOUNTING POLICIES

The accounting policies applied in our Consolidated Financial Statements for the three months ended March 31, 2016 are the same as those applied in our audited annual financial statements in our 2015 Annual Report.

BUSINESS RISKS

The information presented in the "Enterprise Risk Management" section on pages 63 - 66 in our 2015 annual MD&A and under the heading "Risk Factors" on pages 23 - 34 in our Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2015 has not changed materially since December 31, 2015.

CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES

There have been no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the three months ended March 31, 2016 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

PUBLIC SECURITIES FILINGS

Additional information about our Company, including our 2015 Annual Information Form is filed with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities through SEDAR at www.sedar.com and with the U.S. securities regulatory authorities through EDGAR at www.sec.gov.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements and other information included in this document constitute "forward-looking information" and/or "financial outlook" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation or constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable U.S. securities legislation (collectively, the "forward-looking statements"). All statements in this news release other than those relating to historical information or current conditions are forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements as to management's expectations with respect to: updated 2016 annual guidance, including expectations regarding our diluted earnings per share; capital spending expectations for the remaining three quarters of 2016; expectations regarding performance of our business segments in 2016; and our market outlook for the 2016, including nitrogen, potash and phosphate outlook and including anticipated supply and demand for our products and services, expected market and industry conditions with respect to crop nutrient application rates, planted acres, crop mix, prices and the impact of currency fluctuations and import and export volumes. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. As such, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements. The purpose of the outlook provided herein is to assist readers in understanding our expected and targeted financial and operating results, and this information may not be appropriate for other purposes.

All of the forward-looking statements are qualified by the assumptions that are stated or inherent in such forward-looking statements, including the assumptions referred to below and elsewhere in this document. Although Agrium believes that these assumptions are reasonable, this list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of the forward-looking statements and the reader should not place an undue reliance on these assumptions and such forward-looking statements. The additional key assumptions that have been made include, among other things, assumptions with respect to Agrium's ability to successfully integrate and realize the anticipated benefits of its already completed and future acquisitions and that we will be able to implement our standards, controls, procedures and policies at any acquired businesses to realize the expected synergies; that future business, regulatory and industry conditions will be within the parameters expected by Agrium, including with respect to prices, margins, product availability and supplier agreements; the completion of our expansion projects on schedule, as planned and on budget; assumptions with respect to global economic conditions and the accuracy of our market outlook expectations for 2016 and in the future; the adequacy of our cash generated from operations and our ability to access our credit facilities or capital markets for additional sources of financing; our ability to identify suitable candidates for acquisitions and negotiate acceptable terms; our ability to maintain our investment grade rating and achieve our performance targets; and our receipt, on time, of all necessary permits, utilities and project approvals with respect to our expansion projects and that we will have the resources necessary to meet the projects' approach. Also refer to the discussion under the heading "Key Assumptions and Risks in Respect of Forward-Looking Statements" in our 2015 annual MD&A and under the heading "Market Outlook" in this document, with respect to further material assumptions associated with our forward-looking statements.

Events or circumstances that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: general global economic, market and business conditions; weather conditions, including impacts from regional flooding and/or drought conditions; crop planted acreage, yield and prices; the supply and demand and price levels for our major products may vary from what we currently anticipate; governmental and regulatory requirements and actions by governmental authorities, including changes in government policy, government ownership requirements, changes in environmental, tax and other laws or regulations and the interpretation thereof, and political risks, including civil unrest, actions by armed groups or conflict, regional natural gas supply restrictions, as well as counterparty and sovereign risk; delays in completion of turnarounds at our major facilities; gas supply interruptions at the Egyptian Misr Fertilizers Production Company S.A.E. nitrogen facility expansion in Egypt; the risk of additional capital expenditure cost escalation or delays in respect of our Borger nitrogen expansion project and the ramp-up of production following the tie-in of our Vanscoy potash expansion project; and other risk factors detailed from time to time in Agrium reports filed with the Canadian securities regulators and the Securities and Exchange Commission in the U.S. including those disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" in our Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2015 and under the headings "Enterprise Risk Management" and "Key Assumptions and Risks in respect of Forward-Looking Statements" in our 2015 annual MD&A.

The purpose of our expected diluted earnings per share guidance range is to assist readers in understanding our expected and targeted financial results, and this information may not be appropriate for other purposes.

Agrium disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements in this document as a result of new information or future events, except as may be required under applicable U.S. federal securities laws or applicable Canadian securities legislation.

OTHER

Agrium Inc. is a major producer and distributor of agricultural products and services in  North America,  South America, Australia and Egypt through its agricultural retail-distribution and wholesale nutrient businesses. Agrium supplies growers with key products and services such as crop nutrients, crop protection, seed, and agronomic and application services, thereby helping to meet the ever growing global demand for food and fiber. Agrium produces nitrogen, potash and phosphate fertilizers, with a combined wholesale nutrient capacity of over ten million tonnes and with competitive advantages across all product lines. Agrium retail-distribution has an unmatched network of over 1,400 facilities and more than 3,800 crop consultants. We partner with over half a million grower customers globally to help them increase their yields and returns on more than 50 different crops. With a focus on sustainability, the company strives to improve the communities in which it operates through safety, education, environmental improvement and new technologies such as the development of precision agriculture and controlled release nutrient products. Agrium is focused on driving operational excellence across our businesses, pursuing value-enhancing growth opportunities and returning capital to shareholders. For more information visit: www.agrium.com.

A WEBSITE SIMULCAST of the 2016 1^st Quarter Conference Call will be available in a listen-only mode beginning Wednesday, May 4^th, 2016 at 8:00 a.m. MT (10:00 a.m. ET). Please visit the following website: www.agrium.com.

Basis of preparation and statement of compliance

These consolidated interim financial statements ("interim financial statements") were approved for issuance by the Audit Committee on May 3, 2016. We prepared these interim financial statements in accordance with International Accounting Standard 34 Interim Financial Reporting. These interim financial statements do not include all information and disclosures normally provided in annual financial statements and should be read in conjunction with our audited annual financial statements and related notes contained in our 2015 Annual Report, available at www.agrium.com.

The accounting policies applied in these interim financial statements are the same as those applied in our audited annual financial statements in our 2015 Annual Report.

1. Corporate Management

Corporate information

Agrium Inc. ("Agrium") is incorporated under the laws of Canada with common shares listed under the symbol "AGU" on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Our Corporate head office is located at 13131 Lake Fraser Drive S.E., Calgary, Canada. We conduct our operations globally from our Wholesale head office in Calgary and our Retail head office in Loveland, Colorado, United States. In these financial statements, "we", "us", "our" and "Agrium" mean Agrium Inc., its subsidiaries and joint arrangements.

We categorize our operating segments within the Retail and Wholesale business units as follows:

• Retail: Distributes crop nutrients, crop protection products, seed and merchandise and provides services directly to growers through a network of farm centers in two geographical segments:
• • North America: including the United States and Canada
  • International: including Australia and South America
• Wholesale: Produces, markets and distributes crop nutrients and industrial products through the following businesses:
• • Nitrogen: Manufacturing in Alberta and Texas
  • Potash: Mining and processing in Saskatchewan
  • Phosphate: Mining and production facilities in Alberta and Idaho
  • Wholesale Other: Purchasing and reselling crop nutrient products from other suppliers to customers in the Americas and Europe; producing blended crop nutrients and Environmentally Smart Nitrogen ^®  (ESN) polymer-coated nitrogen crop nutrients; and operations of joint ventures and associates

Additional information on our operating segments is included in note 2.

Seasonality in our business results from increased demand for our products during planting seasons. Sales are generally higher in spring and fall.

For our natural gas derivatives designated in hedging relationships, the underlying risk of the derivative contracts is identical to the hedged risk, and accordingly we have established a ratio of 1:1 for all natural gas hedges. Due to a strong correlation between AECO future contract prices and our delivered cost, we did not experience any ineffectiveness on our hedges, and accordingly we have recorded the full change in the fair value of natural gas derivative contracts designated as hedges to other comprehensive income.