merger
U.S. panel examines ag consolidation, as Bayer-Monsanto eye merger
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley set a Sept. 20 hearing to examine consolidation in the seed and agricultural chemical sector at the same time that another blockbuster merger seemed imminent. "If these mergers go through, you'd have a 'big three' instead of a 'big six' dominating the market," Grassley told reporters.
Grassley to hold hearing on ag concentration
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Glassley of Iowa said he would hold hearings next month on "a wave of consolidation among seed and chemical producers, including the merger of Dow and DuPont," the Des Moines Register reported. The announcement came one day after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States approved the $43 billion merger of ChemChina and Swiss-based Syngenta, which has significant operations in the United States.
Ag mergers need coordinated review, says Senate chairman
The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission ought to collaborate in their review of two major mergers that affect the seed and ag chemical supply, said Senate Judiciary chairman Charles Grassley in a letter to regulators. "It is important that these transactions are not reviewed in isolation," wrote Grassley, noting that different regulators are handling each of the mergers, Dow-DuPont and ChemChina-Syngenta.
Merger in China may create a rival to ‘ABCD’ grain giants
A Chinese government commission announced the merger of COFCO, the nation's largest food trader, with Chinatex Corp., one of the country's main textile and grain-trading groups, said China Daily. The new company will be "a bigger rival to compete with the so-called ABCD companies." The "ABCDs" are the long-time international farm export and processing companies — ADM, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus.
BASF sees healthy future despite seed and ag-chem mergers
The third-largest producer of agricultural chemicals, German-based BASF "is not backed into a corner" by the wave of mergers among the world's largest seed and agricultural-chemical companies, says deputy chief executive Martin Brudermueller.
Bayer-Monsanto merger, in doubt for now, has farm and food implications
Monsanto says Bayer isn't offering enough to justify a merger but that it's open to continued talks with the German company. An official at Johns Hopkins' Center for a Livable Future says a merger would "be a real shock to the food system" because of the potential of higher prices to farmers for seeds and agricultural chemicals in a sector undergoing consolidation, reported Marketwatch.
Bayer mulls Monsanto bid, third mega-merger for ag-chem companies
Best known as a pharmaceutical company, Bayer may be considering a takeover bid for Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, in a consolidation wave that Monsanto inaugurated but did not consummate a year ago, said USA Today. Bayer has a large seed and crop-protection portfolio.