To satisfy EU regulators, U.S.-based Dow and DuPont offered to sell part of DuPont’s crop-protection business along with its associated research and development and Dow’s business in copolymers and ionomers, said the News Journal. The companies hope to complete their $130 billion merge in the first half of this year.
The offer to sell the DuPont and Dow units was made in a submission to the European Commission, which has extended to April 4 the deadline for its review of the the transaction. The two companies announced their merger in December 2015. If approved, the Dow-DuPont conglomerate would split into three separate businesses about 18 months after the merger. Two of the new companies, agriculture and specialty products, would be based in Delaware and the third company, devoted to material sciences, would be in Dow’s hometown of Midland, Mich., said the News Journal.
The offer to the EU “marks the first time Dow and DuPont that publicly disclosed concessions it would offer to appease the European Commission,” said the newspaper. DuPont indicated last month that some divestiture was likely in the crop protection area, said the News Journal.
The Dow-DuPont deal is an element in a wave of consolidation affecting the world’s largest seed and agricultural-chemical companies. State-owned ChemChina is buying Swiss-based Syngenta. Bayer stuck a deal to acquire Monsanto. The transactions would create a “big three,” controlling nearly two-thirds of seed and pesticide sales, where there had been a “big six.”