In April this year, Bayer signed an all-cash transaction agreement with BASF, and Bayer sold more crop science business to BASF for 1.7 billion euros (2.1 billion US dollars; According to the current exchange rate, the same below). These businesses for sale achieved sales of 745 million euros (921 million US dollars) in 217. In early April, Bayer promised to sell its digital agriculture business to BASF. This agreement is a further concession made by Bayer in order to obtain the approval of the anti-monopoly agency so that it can successfully acquire Monsanto.
Bayer's divestiture business this time includes: global vegetable seed business, some seed processing products, rape business in Australia, research and development platform for hybrid wheat, and glyphosate herbicide business mainly used in industrial field in Europe; Three mustard research projects with rape texture, some non-selective herbicides, nematicides and digital agriculture platforms will also be transferred to BASF; At the same time, BASF gave back some rights of digital agricultural applications to Bayer.
The vegetable seed business is operated under the trademark Nunhems; Seed treatment products include poncho(clothianidin；; Clothianidin), Votivo(Bacillusfirmus；; Bacillus fortis), fluopyram-based products Copeo and Ilevo；; In this transaction, Bayer will also transfer its Xarvio digital agriculture platform.
about 2,5 employees will be transferred to BASF in this business divestiture. BASF promises that the company will keep all these positions for at least three years after the transaction is completed, and the treatment will be the same.
As early as October 217, Bayer had reached an agreement with BASF, and BASF invested 5.9 billion euros (US$ 7 billion) to acquire Bayer's global glufosinate herbicide business, including some seed businesses including genetically modified Libertylink products. At the same time, we negotiated to license Bayer's agricultural digital platform to BASF. Bayer pointed out that BASF intends to acquire all the businesses that Bayer proposes to divest; Bayer made these moves in response to the relevant requirements of the regulatory authorities.
BASF pointed out that the two transactions reached in October last year and April this year generated a total sales of 2.2 billion euros (2.7 billion US dollars) in 217 and realized a total sales of 2 billion euros (2.5 billion US dollars) in 216. These businesses will complement BASF's existing plant protection business and biotechnology business, thus adding new capabilities and opportunities for the company's profit growth and innovation. The total cash purchase price of the two transactions is 7.6 billion euros (9.4 billion US dollars), and there may be some adjustments at the end of the transaction. In 216, the profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of all the acquisitions of these two transactions was 55 million euros (US$ 679 million).
Bayer will continue to own, operate and maintain these businesses until the divestiture of these products is completed. After the acquisition of Monsanto is completed, Bayer will continue to maintain its vitality in these areas, because Monsanto's projects and products will be added.
Mr. MarkusHeldt, President of BASF Crop Protection Business Department, stressed that BASF's business will be expanded. He said: "With our expansion in the fields of seeds and traits, chemical and biological plant protection, soil and plant health, and digital agricultural applications, we will have more tools to support farmers. Once these transactions are completed, we will have more than 12, employees serving agriculture. "
the premise of these transactions is the approval of the merger and acquisition regulatory authorities and Bayer's successful acquisition of Monsanto. At present, most regulators have conditionally agreed to Bayer's acquisition of Monsanto, and Bayer hopes to complete the acquisition in the second quarter of this year.
Recently, the European Commission has conditionally approved Bayer to divest part of its crop science business to BASF. The premise is that BASF will divest some assets.
The European Commission did not express competitive concerns about most of the transactions. It pointed out that BASF did not sell seeds and non-selective herbicides before, but only recently began to develop digital agriculture in a limited way. However, the European Commission is worried that this transaction may weaken the innovative competitiveness of developing non-selective herbicides in the European Economic Area and reduce the potential competitiveness of producing nematicidal seed treatment agents. In order to relieve these concerns, BASF promised to divest one of the cross-product lines used to develop non-selective herbicides and to divest Trunemco, a seed treatment product for nematicides.
At the beginning of this year, the US Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice, indicating that it had received BASF's report on Trunemuconematodemanagement (CIS-JASMONE+Bacillus YLOLIQUE FACIENSTREMBI 6; Cis-jasmonate+Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain MBI6), which is a compound product of resistance activator and biological nematicide, was registered for seed treatment of corn, cotton and soybean.
According to Mr. GustavopalerosiCarneiro, Senior Vice President of BASF Crop Protection Business Department, BASF will launch six new effective ingredients, and in the next five years, the company will launch more than 1 new products. Among them, the pesticide afidopyropen (trade name Inscalis) is a new effective ingredient jointly developed by Meiji Fruit Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. of Japan and Beili Research Institute of Japan. In 21, BASF was authorized to jointly develop products based on afidopyropen.
in April this year, afidopyropen was registered in Australia, which was the first registration of the active ingredient of BASF in the world. The company plans to launch the product in Australia and India this year. Mefentrifluconazole (trade name Revysol) is a new fungicide discovered by BASF, and the company plans to launch the product in South Korea and Australia in 219.