Monsanto to become history as Bayer set to begin a new chapter

New Delhi: The acquisition of Monsanto by Bayer is complete on 7th June. The $63-billion deal between two multinational companies has received all required regulatory approvals in India and abroad.

It is important to mention that the other two big names, Dow Chemicals and Syngenta have recently been acquired and are now a part of US-based Dupont and China-based ChemChina respectively. With this acquisition, the US, Germany, and China will be controlling the biggest share in the private agriculture industry of the world.

While Monsanto will no longer remain a company, the brand entity too will soon get erased from the public memory as Bayer will remain the only company name post the completion of the acquisition.

Reversing its earlier position that the Bayer CropScience and Monsanto India would continue to operate independently, Bayer CropScience decided to invest upto Rs 4 billion to acquire the shares of Monsanto through an open offer.

That perhaps has to do with a bad reputation that Monsanto has earned in India and other countries due to its genetically modified (GM) seed products. The environmentalists and activists have been at the loggerheads with the company.

Bayer had announced its intention to acquire Monsanto in May 2016 and signed an agreement with the US company for $128 per share in September 2016. Currently, that corresponds to a total cost of about $63 billion taking into account Monsanto’s debt outstanding as of February 28, 2018.

“Bayer will become the sole shareholder of Monsanto on June 7,” said Werner Baumann, Chairman of the board of management of Bayer AG in a statement.

According to the conditional approval from the United States Department of Justice, the integration of Monsanto into Bayer can take place as soon as the divestments to BASF have been completed. This is expected to be in approximately two months, he said.

“We have diligently prepared for the upcoming integration over the past two years. Our extensive experience in integrating other large companies has proven that we can and will be successful,” Baumann said.

“The acquisition of Monsanto is a strategic milestone in strengthening our portfolio of leading businesses in health and nutrition. We will double the size of our agriculture business and create a leading innovation engine in agriculture…,” Baumann added.