* OCP eyes foreign acquisitions - CEO
* Expects turnover to roughly double this year
* Readying bond issues on local and international markets
MARRAKESH, Morocco, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Morocco's Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP), the world's biggest phosphates exporter, is eyeing possible acquisitions of fertiliser producers abroad, its chief executive told Reuters.
The company also expects turnover this year to exceed $3 billion, or about double the figure for last year, and is preparing to raise capital through bond issues on the local and international markets, said Chief Executive Mostafa Terrab.
He said the company was looking carefully at merger and acquisition moves in the international fertiliser industry that could affect companies with which OCP has relationships, and may step in with offers of its own.
"It could make sense to acquire fertiliser capacities ... outside Morocco," he said late on Sunday on the sidelines of the World Policy Conference in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh. "We are taking a very close look at it."
He said company turnover for this year would be up to "well over the $3 billion mark" after demand for fertiliser -- for which phosphates are primarily used -- recovered from a slump last year caused by the global financial crisis.
OCP has embarked on a 6.3 billion euro ($8.81 billion) investment programme to roughly double its production capacity by 2020.
The chief executive said the planned bond issues were designed to prepare debt markets for possible bigger issues later, but he said the timing would depend on market conditions.
Terrab also said OCP was "fairly close" to bringing foreign investors into fertiliser production at the firm's Jorf Lasfar export hub. He said that would either be in the form of joint ventures or investors' taking direct stakes in fertiliser plants.
He said an initial public offering involving a small part of OCP's equity was not excluded, but he said there were no active plans at the moment to do this. (Reporting by Christian Lowe; Editing by Michael Shields)