Monsanto Says Bayer Among Options If Syngenta Takeover Fizzles
2015-06-23 13:51:34.274 GMT
By Jack Kaskey
(Bloomberg) -- More than nine weeks after Monsanto Co.
offered to buy Syngenta AG for $45 billion, the U.S. maker of
seeds and weed killers is exploring other options should the
Swiss company reject the deal.
Monsanto would approach Germany’s Bayer AG about acquiring
its crop chemicals business if they can’t buy Syngenta, Brett
Begemann, chief operating officer of St. Louis-based Monsanto,
said by phone Monday. Basel-based Syngenta has spurned
Monsanto’s offer and refused to negotiate.
“I don’t know what Bayer is going to do with their crop-
protection business, whether they’ll sell it or not,” Begemann
said, “But I’m sure they’d be happy to talk about some other
kind of marketing arrangement.”
Begemann’s comments are the latest salvo in an escalating
war of words between Monsanto and Syngenta as the U.S. seed
maker tries to bring its Swiss rival back to the negotiating
table. Syngenta Chairman Michel Demare said Tuesday that
Monsanto’s bid was simplistic and is unlikely to be approved by
regulators.
Monsanto, which makes Roundup weedkiller as well as crops
genetically modified to tolerate it, wants to own more
proprietary chemicals that can be developed in tandem with new
engineered seeds to maximize their value and get them to market
faster, Begemann said. Syngenta is the world’s largest maker of
herbicides, insecticides and other chemicals used to control
crop pests. Bayer is the second-biggest.
Monsanto has offered 449 Swiss francs a share, with 45
percent in cash. The bid, which includes a $2 billion breakup
fee if blocked by antitrust regulators, represents a 43 percent
premium to Syngenta’s share price at the close on April 30, just
before Bloomberg News reported the proposal.
Unsolicited Offer
“A serious proposal to buy Syngenta has to be made at full
and fair value, has to recognize for shareholders the inherent
combination benefits and it has to provide a high degree of
certainty that the transaction will be closed,” Demare said
Tuesday in a video posted on the company’s website.
Begemann and other Monsanto executives met with Syngenta
investors in Europe earlier this month to discuss the merits of
the unsolicited offer.
Chris Loder, a U.S.-based Bayer spokesman, declined to
comment on a possible Monsanto approach.
While Bayer is in the process of splitting off its plastics
unit, it has no plans to let go of the crop chemicals business,
Chief Executive Officer Marijn Dekkers said on May 28.
Scientists have found that collaboration with counterparts in
Bayer’s human and animal health divisions will help the entire
company.
“This will be an enormous advantage for us in the
future,” Dekkers said in an interview in Leverkusen, Germany.
In the end, Monsanto would rather acquire Syngenta than
talk with a conglomerate like Bayer about hiving off a unit,
Begemann said.
While Monsanto is “committed” to acquiring Syngenta, “we
won’t stay after it forever,” Begemann said. “There are other
options to pursue from a chemical standpoint and we will go
after those.”
For Related News and Information:
Bayer Says Monsanto-Syngenta Deal Would Prompt Industry Review
Bayer Embarks on Almost Yearlong Life-Science Reorganization
Monsanto News: MON US <Equity> CN <GO>
Bloomberg Intelligence Basic and Diversified Chemicals: BI BDCH
<GO>
Bloomberg Intelligence Agricultural Chemicals: BI AGCH <GO>
To contact the reporter on this story:
Jack Kaskey in Houston at +1-713-547-8404 or
jkaskey@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Simon Casey at +1-212-617-3143 or
scasey4@bloomberg.net
Jim Efstathiou Jr., Steven Frank
2015-06-23 13:51:34.274 GMT
By Jack Kaskey
(Bloomberg) -- More than nine weeks after Monsanto Co.
offered to buy Syngenta AG for $45 billion, the U.S. maker of
seeds and weed killers is exploring other options should the
Swiss company reject the deal.
Monsanto would approach Germany’s Bayer AG about acquiring
its crop chemicals business if they can’t buy Syngenta, Brett
Begemann, chief operating officer of St. Louis-based Monsanto,
said by phone Monday. Basel-based Syngenta has spurned
Monsanto’s offer and refused to negotiate.
“I don’t know what Bayer is going to do with their crop-
protection business, whether they’ll sell it or not,” Begemann
said, “But I’m sure they’d be happy to talk about some other
kind of marketing arrangement.”
Begemann’s comments are the latest salvo in an escalating
war of words between Monsanto and Syngenta as the U.S. seed
maker tries to bring its Swiss rival back to the negotiating
table. Syngenta Chairman Michel Demare said Tuesday that
Monsanto’s bid was simplistic and is unlikely to be approved by
regulators.
Monsanto, which makes Roundup weedkiller as well as crops
genetically modified to tolerate it, wants to own more
proprietary chemicals that can be developed in tandem with new
engineered seeds to maximize their value and get them to market
faster, Begemann said. Syngenta is the world’s largest maker of
herbicides, insecticides and other chemicals used to control
crop pests. Bayer is the second-biggest.
Monsanto has offered 449 Swiss francs a share, with 45
percent in cash. The bid, which includes a $2 billion breakup
fee if blocked by antitrust regulators, represents a 43 percent
premium to Syngenta’s share price at the close on April 30, just
before Bloomberg News reported the proposal.
Unsolicited Offer
“A serious proposal to buy Syngenta has to be made at full
and fair value, has to recognize for shareholders the inherent
combination benefits and it has to provide a high degree of
certainty that the transaction will be closed,” Demare said
Tuesday in a video posted on the company’s website.
Begemann and other Monsanto executives met with Syngenta
investors in Europe earlier this month to discuss the merits of
the unsolicited offer.
Chris Loder, a U.S.-based Bayer spokesman, declined to
comment on a possible Monsanto approach.
While Bayer is in the process of splitting off its plastics
unit, it has no plans to let go of the crop chemicals business,
Chief Executive Officer Marijn Dekkers said on May 28.
Scientists have found that collaboration with counterparts in
Bayer’s human and animal health divisions will help the entire
company.
“This will be an enormous advantage for us in the
future,” Dekkers said in an interview in Leverkusen, Germany.
In the end, Monsanto would rather acquire Syngenta than
talk with a conglomerate like Bayer about hiving off a unit,
Begemann said.
While Monsanto is “committed” to acquiring Syngenta, “we
won’t stay after it forever,” Begemann said. “There are other
options to pursue from a chemical standpoint and we will go
after those.”
For Related News and Information:
Bayer Says Monsanto-Syngenta Deal Would Prompt Industry Review
Bayer Embarks on Almost Yearlong Life-Science Reorganization
Monsanto News: MON US <Equity> CN <GO>
Bloomberg Intelligence Basic and Diversified Chemicals: BI BDCH
<GO>
Bloomberg Intelligence Agricultural Chemicals: BI AGCH <GO>
To contact the reporter on this story:
Jack Kaskey in Houston at +1-713-547-8404 or
jkaskey@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Simon Casey at +1-212-617-3143 or
scasey4@bloomberg.net
Jim Efstathiou Jr., Steven Frank