* To fund deal from own resources
* ICL shares up 3 percent to 27-month high
(Adds detail, analyst/company comment, shares)
By Steven Scheer
JERUSALEM, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Israel Chemicals will pay around $270 million for the Global Professional business unit of U.S. group Scotts Miracle-Gro to expand its product line and production globally, lifting its shares.
ICL, controlled by holding company Israel Corp, said on Tuesday it would finance the purchase from its own resources and expected the transaction to complete in the second quarter of 2011.
The deal will serve as an international platform for growth around the world as the business being acquired sells specialty fertilisers and plant protection products to commercial nurseries, greenhouses and specialty crop growers in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Far East.
The Global Professional business had earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $31.4 million on revenue of $242 million in the year to end-September. It has production plants in the Netherlands, United States and Britain where it has peat mines.
Shares in ICL, a fertiliser and specialty chemicals maker using Dead Sea minerals and the second largest company on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, rose 3 percent to a 27-month high.
Scotts Miracle-Gro, the world's largest marketer of branded consumer lawn and garden products, said the transaction would be dilutive to its earnings by 10-15 cents in 2011.
ICL said it expected "operating synergies from the acquisition, especially in the areas of sales, raw materials and logistics, administration and other services".
Psagot analyst Limor Gruber said: "We see the acquisition favourably. The business segment is characterised by fast growth -- and, there will be synergies".
UBS analyst Roni Biron said: "The deal should double ICL's exisiting business in specialty fertilisers, which is relatively fast growing".
Of ICL's three divisions, fertilisers comprise nearly half group sales. Two thirds of that are from potash and the rest from fertilisers and phosphates.
ICL, the world's sixth-largest potash producer, last month reported a lower third-quarter profit due to prices of potash in old contracts to India and China being lower than spot prices.
It shares have risen 44 percent from a July low. (Additional reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Dan Lalor)