UAP emerges from public offering with momentum

GREELEY – United Agri Products Holding Corp. has a long history as a publicly held entity and that history is shining brightly on its current public offering.

As a subsidiary of ConAgra Foods, UAP was part of one of the largest agriculture companies in the world. In 2003, ConAgra sold UAP to Apollo Management for about $600 million, and the new owners decided the future of the crop products distributor once again involved being public.

That goal was accomplished in November 2004 when UAP launched an initial public offering that issued 27.44 million shares at $16 a share, making it…