FMC Closes $1.2 Billion in 8% Secured Notes to Refinance Maturing Debt
Distressed
Company Background
FMC Corporation is a Philadelphia-based global agricultural sciences company that makes herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and biologicals for growers worldwide. Revenue for full-year 2025 was $3.47 billion. The company has been under severe financial stress for more than a year: a $1.356 billion goodwill impairment triggered by its stock-price decline drove a GAAP net loss of $2.24 billion in 2025, and the first quarter of 2026 added another $281 million GAAP loss, partly driven by a $124.7 million increase in valuation allowances on Swiss deferred tax assets. Free cash flow was negative $628 million in Q1 2026 alone.
The company has run two overlapping restructuring programs simultaneously. An older initiative called Project Focus has been running for years; in December 2025 the board approved a second plan, Project Foundation, expecting $560 million to $635 million in pre-tax charges with actions substantially complete by end of 2027. In response to commercial challenges in India, FMC wrote down its India commercial business by approximately $510 million in Q3 2025 and classified those assets as held for sale. In October 2025 it cut its quarterly dividend to $0.08 per share. President Ronaldo Pereira departed December 15, 2025. In February 2026 the board authorized an exploration of strategic alternatives, including but not limited to a sale of the company.
What Was Disclosed
FMC completed on June 5, 2026 a private offering of $1.2 billion aggregate principal amount of 8.000% Senior Secured Notes due June 1, 2031, with estimated net proceeds of approximately $1.185 billion after underwriting discounts and expenses. The notes were issued at par and pay interest semi-annually beginning December 1, 2026. The indenture was entered into with U.S. Bank Trust Company, National Association, acting as both trustee and notes collateral agent.