Fast-growing Pioneer, one of the largest U.S. seed companies, could face “long-term repercussions” from a proposal by a New York investor to break up corporate parent DuPont, reports the Des Moines Register. “It could push … Pioneer into a publicly traded company, left to navigate a volatile market without its cash-rich parent.” The Register says Pioneer could suffer cuts to long-term product development and employment as well as potentially be a takeover target.
With farm income and commodity prices down from recent highs, Pioneer faces economic headwinds this year. DuPont projects a drop in agricultural sales of a few percentage points. “Still, the agriculture business represents about a third of DuPont’s operating profits last year, according to Jeffrey Stafford, an analyst at Morningstar in Chicago,” the paper reports. It quotes a St. Louis analyst as saying Pioneer is “the crown jewel” as a revenue generator for DuPont. Founded in 1928 by Henry A Wallace, who later became U.S. agriculture secretary, Pioneer employes 3,400 people, most of them in the Des Moines area.