Nufarm takes $28m hit on Monsanto debt

The accounts included a $58 million receivable related to the three-year dispute with Monsanto, over previous arrangements for the supply of glyphosate, but Nufarm wrote that down to $25 million in June.

Yesterday the company said it would write the receivable down further, to $13.5 million, which analysts said was about $7 million worse than expected.

"It wasn't good but it could have been worse," said the Citigroup analyst Tim Mitchell.

Nufarm's chief executive, Doug Rathbone, said the board decided to approve the settlement after considering "the time that would have been consumed by further hearings to ... determine the issues between the parties, litigation risk, and the ongoing commercial relationship between the parties".

The company must refinance $600 million in debt by December but said the writedown would have no impact on talks with bankers. It also said it would hit or exceed the upper range of its profit guidance of $94 million for fiscal 2011.