BASF Seals Second Seeds Deal with Bayer
As planned, BASF has sealed the purchase of a second package of seeds assets that Bayer agreed to divest in return for regulatory approval of its takeover of Monsanto. The all-cash transaction worth €1.7 billion is subject to adjustment at closing, the German chemical giant said.
With this and another all-cash agrochemicals asset purchase from Bayer sealed in October 2017, BASF will gain sales of €2.2 billion and EBITDA of €550 million on a pro forma adjusted basis. The acquisition price of €5.9 billion is also subject to adjustment at closing.
Neither transaction can close until all regulatory authorities have approved the Bayer-Monsanto merger. The EU gave the green light at the end of March, and the latest reports suggested that US approval is imminent.
The latest pan-German deal, agreed in March 2018, includes Bayer’s entire vegetable seeds business trading as Nunhems, its seed treatment products sold under the Poncho, VOTiVO, COPeO and ILeVO brands, the R&D platform for hybrid wheat and the complete state-of-the-art digital farming platform xarvio.
The Ludwigshafen group is also picking up its Leverkusen rival’s oilseed rape business in Australia, as well as certain glyphosate-based herbicides in Europe, which are used predominantly in industrial applications. Also part of the package are Bayer’s canola-quality juncea research and certain non-selective herbicide and nematicide research projects. Altogether, these businesses had sales of around €745 million last year.
In last autumn’s agreement, BASF signed on to acquire Bayer’s global glufosinate-ammonium non-selective herbicide business, its seeds businesses for key row crops in select markets and trait research and breeding capabilities for these crops, along with the LibertyLink trait and trademark. These businesses had 2017 sales of €1.5 billion.
“With the two acquisitions, BASF will strengthen its crop protection portfolio and for the first time enter the seeds business in key agricultural markets. “Through the expanded scope, we are accelerating and broadening the basis for growth across all regions,” said CEO Kurt Bock. The Crop Protection division’s workforce will swell to 12,000 employees.
Bayer said it would obtain from BASF a back-license for certain digital farming applications. It stressed additionally that it is not exiting all of the markets in which it is selling assets, as it will pick up businesses in some of the same fields with the Monsanto takeover.
