adjusted after-tax earnings from continuing operations attributable to fmc stockholders of $ 368.3 million increased approximately $ 110.6 million or 43 percent due to higher results in fmc agricultural solutions and fmc lithium . see the disclosure of our adjusted earnings non-gaap financial measurement below under the section titled “ results of operations ” . other 2017 highlights in fmc lithium , we are seeing the benefits of our strategy to grow our business in the technology-driven specialty end markets , where demand continues to accelerate and pricing trends across our portfolio remain favorable . in march , we announced our intention to separate fmc lithium into a publicly traded company during 2018. in june , we started commercial sales from our new lithium hydroxide facility in china . we expanded production of lithium carbonate at our argentina site through debottlenecking projects , and we also announced plans to more than double lithium carbonate production at that same site to at least 40,000 metric tons by 2022 . 18 on august 1 , 2017 , we completed the sale of the omega-3 business to pelagia as for $ 38 million . in may 2017 , we entered into a new $ 1.5 billion term loan facility to fund the transaction agreement with dupont.we also entered into an amended and restated $ 1.5 billion revolving credit facility and amended the existing term loan facility at that time . among other things , the amendments temporarily increased the maximum leverage ratio financial covenant in order to permit the debt incurred under the contemplated new term loan facility along with certain other changes to permit the expected transaction . 2018 outlook we believe the crop protection chemical market will be flat to up low single digits and we believe that the lithium market will continue to see significant demand growth in 2018. we believe that our 2018 plan is very achievable , as it relies on things we control rather than on expectations of positive external events . we expect to deliver segment revenue and earnings growth in each business . in fmc agricultural solutions , we will focus on the integration of the dupont crop protection business and on creating a stronger combined business to capitalize on the products and expertise of these two former organizations . we expect to outperform the crop protection market in 2018 , owing to our recently acquired products and to our proactive competitive positioning of our legacy business . we believe that fmc lithium will increase earnings significantly through volume and price increases in 2018. on a long-term basis , we are a technology-driven company with low-cost operations , a world class research and development organization that balances short-and mid-term developments with long-term innovations , and global scale with strong regional expertise to support local customers . please see segment discussions under the section entitled “ results of operations ” for 2018 outlook for each segment . 19 results of operations— 2017 , 2016 and 2015 overview the following presents a reconciliation of our segment operating profit to the net income attributable to fmc stockholders as seen through the eyes of our management . for management purposes , we report the operating performance of each of our business segments based on earnings before interest and income taxes excluding corporate expenses , other income ( expense ) , net and corporate special income ( charges ) . replace_table_token_6_th ( 1 ) see note 7 to the consolidated financial statements included within this form 10-k for details of restructuring and other ( charges ) income by segment : replace_table_token_7_th ( 2 ) our non-operating pension and postretirement costs are defined as those costs related to interest , expected return on plan assets , amortized actuarial gains and losses and the impacts of any plan curtailments or settlements . these costs are primarily related to changes in pension plan assets and liabilities which are tied to financial market performance and we consider these costs to be outside our operational performance . we exclude these non-operating pension and postretirement costs from our segments as we believe that removing them provides a better understanding of the underlying profitability of our businesses , provides increased transparency and clarity in the performance of our retirement plans and enhances period-over-period comparability . we continue to include the service cost and amortization of prior service cost in our operating segments noted above . we believe these elements reflect the current year operating costs to our businesses for the employment benefits provided to active employees . these expenses are included as a component of the line item `` selling , general and administrative expenses `` on the consolidated statements of income ( loss ) . ( 3 ) charges relate to the expensing of the inventory fair value step-up resulting from the application of purchase accounting , transaction costs , costs for transitional employees , other acquired employee related costs , integration related legal and professional third-party fees and gains or losses on hedging purchase price associated with the acquisitions . amounts represent the following : 20 replace_table_token_8_th ( 1 ) represents transaction costs , costs for transitional employees , other acquired employee related costs and integration related legal and professional third-party fees . ( 2 ) these charges are included in “ selling , general and administrative expense `` on the consolidated statements of income ( loss ) . ( 3 ) these charges are included in “ costs of sales and services ” on the consolidated statements of income ( loss ) . ( 4 ) acquisition-related charges and restructuring charges to integrate cheminova with fmc agricultural solutions were completed at the end of 2016. adjusted earnings reconciliation the following chart , which is provided to assist the readers of our financial statements , depicts certain after-tax charges ( gains ) . these items are excluded from the measures we use to evaluate business performance and determine certain performance-based compensation . story_separator_special_tag other charges ( income ) , net in 2015 consisted of environmental charges of $ 21.7 million , the impacts of the argentina currency devaluation in december of 2015 of $ 10.7 million , and $ 20.5 million of expenses associated with acquired in-process research and development activity . partially offsetting these amounts was a gain of $ 26.6 million related to the sale of our remaining ownership interest in a belgian-based pesticide distribution company , belchim crop protection n.v. ( `` belchim `` ) . non-operating pension and postretirement ( charges ) income non-operating pension and postretirement ( charges ) income are included in “ selling , general and administrative expenses ” on our consolidated statements of income ( loss ) . 2017 vs. 2016 the charge for 2017 was $ 18.2 million compared to $ 23.4 million in 2016 . the decrease was the result of $ 22.8 million lower amortization of net actuarial losses as a result of a change in estimate in fiscal 2017 to amortize the gains and losses over the expected life time of the inactive population rather than the average remaining service period of the active participants which was partially offset by an increase of $ 15.4 million for recognized losses due to plan settlements . see note 13 for more information . 2016 vs. 2015 the charge for 2016 was $ 23.4 million compared to $ 29.8 million in 2015. the decrease in charges was in part due to the estimation method used in 2016 to calculate the interest cost components of our net periodic benefit cost as described in the critical accounting policies section of item 7 within this form 10-k. the decrease was also the result of $ 15.1 million lower amortization of net actuarial losses . these decreases were partially offset by an increase of $ 17.7 million for recognized losses due to plan settlements . see note 13 for more information . acquisition-related charges a detailed description of the acquisition related charges is included in note 19 to the consolidated financial statements included within this form 10-k and in the segment results reconciliation above within the `` results of operations `` section of the management 's discussion and analysis . provision for income taxes a significant amount of our earnings is generated by our foreign subsidiaries ( e.g . denmark , singapore and hong kong ) , which tax earnings at lower rates than the united states federal statutory rate . our future effective tax rates may be materially impacted by numerous items including : a future change in the composition of earnings from foreign and domestic tax jurisdictions , as earnings in foreign jurisdictions are typically taxed at more favorable rates than the united states federal statutory rate ; accounting for uncertain tax positions ; business combinations ; expiration of statute of limitations or settlement of tax audits ; changes in valuation allowance ; changes in tax law ; and the potential decision to repatriate certain future foreign earnings on which united states or foreign withholding taxes have not been previously accrued . as a result of the act , we currently estimate our effect tax rate for 2018 will increase by low single digits as a result of a minimum tax on overseas income , combined with a restriction on the use of foreign tax credits to offset this additional tax . in foreign jurisdictions , with a tax rate outside the u.s. of less than around 13 percent , we will have an additional u.s. tax bill under the gilti provisions of the act . provision for income taxes for 2017 was expense of $ 264.1 million resulting in an effective tax rate of 146.1 percent primarily attributable to the $ 315.9 million of provisional tax expense associated with the act . provision for income taxes for 2016 was 26 expense of $ 50.1 million resulting in an effective tax rate of 27.7 percent and provision for income taxes for 2015 was $ 5.2 million resulting in an effective tax rate of negative 2.5 percent . during 2015 , our fmc agricultural solutions business in brazil experienced significant current and cumulative losses driven by unfavorable market conditions . as of december 31 , 2016 , sufficient positive evidence to realize the net deferred tax assets in brazil was not available and a full valuation allowance against those assets remains established . note 11 to the consolidated financial statements included in this form 10-k includes more details on the drivers of the gaap effective rate and year-over-year changes . we believe showing the reconciliation below of our gaap to non-gaap effective tax rate provides investors with useful supplemental information about our tax rate on the core underlying business . replace_table_token_15_th _ ( 1 ) tax adjustments in 2017 were primarily associated with the provisional income tax expense recorded as a result of the enactment of the act in december 2017. see note 11 for additional discussion . tax adjustments in 2016 were primarily associated with valuation allowance adjustments to u.s. state deferred tax balances . tax adjustments in 2015 were primarily associated with valuation allowance adjustments taken in our brazil subsidiaries . the primary drivers for the decrease in the year-to-date effective tax rate for 2017 compared to 2016 are shown in the table above . the remaining change was due to reduced domestic earnings in our fmc agricultural solutions business and the impact of the full integration of cheminova into our global supply chain . discontinued operations , net of income taxes our discontinued operations , in periods up to its sale , represent our discontinued fmc health and nutrition and fmc alkali chemicals business results as well as adjustments to retained liabilities from other previously discontinued operations . the primary liabilities retained include environmental liabilities , other postretirement benefit liabilities , self-insurance , long-term obligations related to legal proceedings and historical restructuring activities . see note 9 to the consolidated financial statements for additional

cash and cash equivalents at december 31 , 2017 and 2016 , were $ 283.0 million and $ 64.2 million , respectively . of the cash and cash equivalents balance at december 31 , 2017 , $ 97.2 million was held by our foreign subsidiaries . as a result of the act , we recognized a one-time transition tax on the deemed repatriation of foreign earnings and the remeasurement of the company 's u.s. net deferred tax asset . see note 11 to these consolidated financial statements for more information . the cash held by foreign subsidiaries for permanent reinvestment is generally used to finance the subsidiaries ' operating activities and future foreign investments . we have not provided additional income taxes for any additional outside basis differences inherent in our investments in subsidiaries because the investments are essentially permanent in duration or we have concluded that no additional tax liability will arise upon disposal . determining the amount of unrecognized deferred tax liability related to any remaining undistributed foreign earnings not subject to the transition tax and additional outside basis difference in these entities ( i.e. , basis difference in excess of that subject to the one-time transition tax ) is not practicable or in process and not yet complete . we are still in the process of analyzing the impact of the act on our indefinite reinvestment assertion .


 Write a concise suspicious activity report of the following text delimited by triple backquotes. Return your response as a formal report which covers the key points highlighting the location,dates,entity names and account holder information in chronological order of the text.
     ```cash and cash equivalents at december 31 , 2017 and 2016 , were $ 283.0 million and $ 64.2 million , respectively . of the cash and cash equivalents balance at december 31 , 2017 , $ 97.2 million was held by our foreign subsidiaries . as a result of the act , we recognized a one-time transition tax on the deemed repatriation of foreign earnings and the remeasurement of the company 's u.s. net deferred tax asset . see note 11 to these consolidated financial statements for more information . the cash held by foreign subsidiaries for permanent reinvestment is generally used to finance the subsidiaries ' operating activities and future foreign investments . we have not provided additional income taxes for any additional outside basis differences inherent in our investments in subsidiaries because the investments are essentially permanent in duration or we have concluded that no additional tax liability will arise upon disposal . determining the amount of unrecognized deferred tax liability related to any remaining undistributed foreign earnings not subject to the transition tax and additional outside basis difference in these entities ( i.e. , basis difference in excess of that subject to the one-time transition tax ) is not practicable or in process and not yet complete . we are still in the process of analyzing the impact of the act on our indefinite reinvestment assertion .
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 Suspicious Activity Report : adjusted after-tax earnings from continuing operations attributable to fmc stockholders of $ 368.3 million increased approximately $ 110.6 million or 43 percent due to higher results in fmc agricultural solutions and fmc lithium . see the disclosure of our adjusted earnings non-gaap financial measurement below under the section titled “ results of operations ” . other 2017 highlights in fmc lithium , we are seeing the benefits of our strategy to grow our business in the technology-driven specialty end markets , where demand continues to accelerate and pricing trends across our portfolio remain favorable . in march , we announced our intention to separate fmc lithium into a publicly traded company during 2018. in june , we started commercial sales from our new lithium hydroxide facility in china . we expanded production of lithium carbonate at our argentina site through debottlenecking projects , and we also announced plans to more than double lithium carbonate production at that same site to at least 40,000 metric tons by 2022 . 18 on august 1 , 2017 , we completed the sale of the omega-3 business to pelagia as for $ 38 million . in may 2017 , we entered into a new $ 1.5 billion term loan facility to fund the transaction agreement with dupont.we also entered into an amended and restated $ 1.5 billion revolving credit facility and amended the existing term loan facility at that time . among other things , the amendments temporarily increased the maximum leverage ratio financial covenant in order to permit the debt incurred under the contemplated new term loan facility along with certain other changes to permit the expected transaction . 2018 outlook we believe the crop protection chemical market will be flat to up low single digits and we believe that the lithium market will continue to see significant demand growth in 2018. we believe that our 2018 plan is very achievable , as it relies on things we control rather than on expectations of positive external events . we expect to deliver segment revenue and earnings growth in each business . in fmc agricultural solutions , we will focus on the integration of the dupont crop protection business and on creating a stronger combined business to capitalize on the products and expertise of these two former organizations . we expect to outperform the crop protection market in 2018 , owing to our recently acquired products and to our proactive competitive positioning of our legacy business . we believe that fmc lithium will increase earnings significantly through volume and price increases in 2018. on a long-term basis , we are a technology-driven company with low-cost operations , a world class research and development organization that balances short-and mid-term developments with long-term innovations , and global scale with strong regional expertise to support local customers . please see segment discussions under the section entitled “ results of operations ” for 2018 outlook for each segment . 19 results of operations— 2017 , 2016 and 2015 overview the following presents a reconciliation of our segment operating profit to the net income attributable to fmc stockholders as seen through the eyes of our management . for management purposes , we report the operating performance of each of our business segments based on earnings before interest and income taxes excluding corporate expenses , other income ( expense ) , net and corporate special income ( charges ) . replace_table_token_6_th ( 1 ) see note 7 to the consolidated financial statements included within this form 10-k for details of restructuring and other ( charges ) income by segment : replace_table_token_7_th ( 2 ) our non-operating pension and postretirement costs are defined as those costs related to interest , expected return on plan assets , amortized actuarial gains and losses and the impacts of any plan curtailments or settlements . these costs are primarily related to changes in pension plan assets and liabilities which are tied to financial market performance and we consider these costs to be outside our operational performance . we exclude these non-operating pension and postretirement costs from our segments as we believe that removing them provides a better understanding of the underlying profitability of our businesses , provides increased transparency and clarity in the performance of our retirement plans and enhances period-over-period comparability . we continue to include the service cost and amortization of prior service cost in our operating segments noted above . we believe these elements reflect the current year operating costs to our businesses for the employment benefits provided to active employees . these expenses are included as a component of the line item `` selling , general and administrative expenses `` on the consolidated statements of income ( loss ) . ( 3 ) charges relate to the expensing of the inventory fair value step-up resulting from the application of purchase accounting , transaction costs , costs for transitional employees , other acquired employee related costs , integration related legal and professional third-party fees and gains or losses on hedging purchase price associated with the acquisitions . amounts represent the following : 20 replace_table_token_8_th ( 1 ) represents transaction costs , costs for transitional employees , other acquired employee related costs and integration related legal and professional third-party fees . ( 2 ) these charges are included in “ selling , general and administrative expense `` on the consolidated statements of income ( loss ) . ( 3 ) these charges are included in “ costs of sales and services ” on the consolidated statements of income ( loss ) . ( 4 ) acquisition-related charges and restructuring charges to integrate cheminova with fmc agricultural solutions were completed at the end of 2016. adjusted earnings reconciliation the following chart , which is provided to assist the readers of our financial statements , depicts certain after-tax charges ( gains ) . these items are excluded from the measures we use to evaluate business performance and determine certain performance-based compensation . story_separator_special_tag other charges ( income ) , net in 2015 consisted of environmental charges of $ 21.7 million , the impacts of the argentina currency devaluation in december of 2015 of $ 10.7 million , and $ 20.5 million of expenses associated with acquired in-process research and development activity . partially offsetting these amounts was a gain of $ 26.6 million related to the sale of our remaining ownership interest in a belgian-based pesticide distribution company , belchim crop protection n.v. ( `` belchim `` ) . non-operating pension and postretirement ( charges ) income non-operating pension and postretirement ( charges ) income are included in “ selling , general and administrative expenses ” on our consolidated statements of income ( loss ) . 2017 vs. 2016 the charge for 2017 was $ 18.2 million compared to $ 23.4 million in 2016 . the decrease was the result of $ 22.8 million lower amortization of net actuarial losses as a result of a change in estimate in fiscal 2017 to amortize the gains and losses over the expected life time of the inactive population rather than the average remaining service period of the active participants which was partially offset by an increase of $ 15.4 million for recognized losses due to plan settlements . see note 13 for more information . 2016 vs. 2015 the charge for 2016 was $ 23.4 million compared to $ 29.8 million in 2015. the decrease in charges was in part due to the estimation method used in 2016 to calculate the interest cost components of our net periodic benefit cost as described in the critical accounting policies section of item 7 within this form 10-k. the decrease was also the result of $ 15.1 million lower amortization of net actuarial losses . these decreases were partially offset by an increase of $ 17.7 million for recognized losses due to plan settlements . see note 13 for more information . acquisition-related charges a detailed description of the acquisition related charges is included in note 19 to the consolidated financial statements included within this form 10-k and in the segment results reconciliation above within the `` results of operations `` section of the management 's discussion and analysis . provision for income taxes a significant amount of our earnings is generated by our foreign subsidiaries ( e.g . denmark , singapore and hong kong ) , which tax earnings at lower rates than the united states federal statutory rate . our future effective tax rates may be materially impacted by numerous items including : a future change in the composition of earnings from foreign and domestic tax jurisdictions , as earnings in foreign jurisdictions are typically taxed at more favorable rates than the united states federal statutory rate ; accounting for uncertain tax positions ; business combinations ; expiration of statute of limitations or settlement of tax audits ; changes in valuation allowance ; changes in tax law ; and the potential decision to repatriate certain future foreign earnings on which united states or foreign withholding taxes have not been previously accrued . as a result of the act , we currently estimate our effect tax rate for 2018 will increase by low single digits as a result of a minimum tax on overseas income , combined with a restriction on the use of foreign tax credits to offset this additional tax . in foreign jurisdictions , with a tax rate outside the u.s. of less than around 13 percent , we will have an additional u.s. tax bill under the gilti provisions of the act . provision for income taxes for 2017 was expense of $ 264.1 million resulting in an effective tax rate of 146.1 percent primarily attributable to the $ 315.9 million of provisional tax expense associated with the act . provision for income taxes for 2016 was 26 expense of $ 50.1 million resulting in an effective tax rate of 27.7 percent and provision for income taxes for 2015 was $ 5.2 million resulting in an effective tax rate of negative 2.5 percent . during 2015 , our fmc agricultural solutions business in brazil experienced significant current and cumulative losses driven by unfavorable market conditions . as of december 31 , 2016 , sufficient positive evidence to realize the net deferred tax assets in brazil was not available and a full valuation allowance against those assets remains established . note 11 to the consolidated financial statements included in this form 10-k includes more details on the drivers of the gaap effective rate and year-over-year changes . we believe showing the reconciliation below of our gaap to non-gaap effective tax rate provides investors with useful supplemental information about our tax rate on the core underlying business . replace_table_token_15_th _ ( 1 ) tax adjustments in 2017 were primarily associated with the provisional income tax expense recorded as a result of the enactment of the act in december 2017. see note 11 for additional discussion . tax adjustments in 2016 were primarily associated with valuation allowance adjustments to u.s. state deferred tax balances . tax adjustments in 2015 were primarily associated with valuation allowance adjustments taken in our brazil subsidiaries . the primary drivers for the decrease in the year-to-date effective tax rate for 2017 compared to 2016 are shown in the table above . the remaining change was due to reduced domestic earnings in our fmc agricultural solutions business and the impact of the full integration of cheminova into our global supply chain . discontinued operations , net of income taxes our discontinued operations , in periods up to its sale , represent our discontinued fmc health and nutrition and fmc alkali chemicals business results as well as adjustments to retained liabilities from other previously discontinued operations . the primary liabilities retained include environmental liabilities , other postretirement benefit liabilities , self-insurance , long-term obligations related to legal proceedings and historical restructuring activities . see note 9 to the consolidated financial statements for additional

