Delaware “beat out Iowa and Indianapolis to land the corporate headquarters for what will be the largest agriculture company in the nation, a spin-off that will be created after the merger of DuPont and Dow later this year,” reports the Wilmington News Journal.
The state and New Castle County offered tax relief and pledged $17 million “to keep DuPont strong in Delaware and it paid off,” said the newspaper. Along with the seed and agricultural chemicals company, Delaware also will be the headquarters of a specialty products company that includes nutrition and health products. The other spinoff, handling material sciences, will be in Midland, MI, Dow’s hometown.
DuPont’s seed business has operated from central Iowa. The combined Dow-DuPont agriculture company will have an estimated $20 billion in annual revenue and will be larger than Monsanto, which is based in St. Louis. “Under the agriculture company’s structure, the office of the CEO and key corporate support functions will be in Delaware. Sites in Johnston, Iowa, and Indianapolis — two places that competed to be the agriculture company’s headquarters — will serve as global centers focused on business lines, support functions, research, sales and marketing,” said the News Journal.