Conanil via flickr
On Tuesday, the process of approving one of the largest deals in the history of agribusiness - the association of German Bayer and American Monsanto - was completed. In accordance with the decision of the US Justice Department, Bayer and Monsanto must sell assets worth $ 9 billion to a third party to hold a merger worth $ 66 billion. This is the largest volume of assets that US regulators demanded for the conclusion of a deal.
As noted in the statement of the US Justice Department, such allocation of assets "completely resolves all horizontal and vertical problems with competition," and "US farmers and consumers will continue to enjoy benefits of competition in this industry."
The largest chemical company BASF in the world is expected to buy the allocated assets, that is, units for the production of seeds and herbicides, as well as a number of intellectual property objects.
The agreement on the sale of these assets to BASF was reached in the fall of 2017.
The agreement on the purchase of the American producer of GMO products Monsanto was signed by the German concern Bayer in 2016. The US company rejected several successive purchase offers from Bayer and agreed only after the amount of the offer reached $ 66 billion. Over the next two years, the deal participants sought permission to merge from regulators from different countries. Only in March of this year the deal was approved by the European Commission.
"The US Justice Department decision brings us close to achieving our goal of creating a world leader in agriculture," said Bayer CEO Werner Baumann, commenting on the prospects for closing the deal. "We want to help farmers around the world produce more complete food products in a more environmentally responsible way ". According to the management of Bayer, in the next two months they will be able to get all the missing permits for the transaction, and it will be completed by mid-summer.
source: reuters.com
As noted in the statement of the US Justice Department, such allocation of assets "completely resolves all horizontal and vertical problems with competition," and "US farmers and consumers will continue to enjoy benefits of competition in this industry."
The largest chemical company BASF in the world is expected to buy the allocated assets, that is, units for the production of seeds and herbicides, as well as a number of intellectual property objects.
The agreement on the sale of these assets to BASF was reached in the fall of 2017.
The agreement on the purchase of the American producer of GMO products Monsanto was signed by the German concern Bayer in 2016. The US company rejected several successive purchase offers from Bayer and agreed only after the amount of the offer reached $ 66 billion. Over the next two years, the deal participants sought permission to merge from regulators from different countries. Only in March of this year the deal was approved by the European Commission.
"The US Justice Department decision brings us close to achieving our goal of creating a world leader in agriculture," said Bayer CEO Werner Baumann, commenting on the prospects for closing the deal. "We want to help farmers around the world produce more complete food products in a more environmentally responsible way ". According to the management of Bayer, in the next two months they will be able to get all the missing permits for the transaction, and it will be completed by mid-summer.
source: reuters.com
