Monsanto said its proposed acquisition of Syngenta would include the sale of all of the Swiss company’s assets for conventional and genetically modified seeds in an effort to overcome regulatory concerns.
The deal would also trigger the sale of some overlapping chemical operations, Monsanto said in a statement Wednesday ahead of an investor presentation by chief operating officer Brett Begemann.
Earlier this month, Syngenta rejected a 41.7 billion Swiss- franc ($44.5 billion) offer from its U.S. rival, saying it undervalued the company and posed execution risks. Buying Syngenta would make St. Louis-based Monsanto, already the world’s largest supplier of seeds, the biggest player in agricultural chemicals as well.
“We already thought that the odds of the deal going through were relatively high, but this new information increases the likelihood,” London-based analysts at Deutsche Bank AG led by Virginie Boucher-Ferte said Wednesday in a note.
Syngenta was aware of the planned divestitures when it rejected the offer, said Paul Barrett, a spokesman for the Basel, Switzerland-based company.
“The regulatory hurdles are more challenging than implied by the announcement,” Barrett said in an e-mailed statement.
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
