After losing the battle for Syngenta AG, Monsanto Co has explored possible deals with BASF SE and Bayer AG of Germany as the US seed company seeks to bolster its position amid industry consolidation, according to people familiar with the matter.
Monsanto approached its preferred partner BASF about buying its crop-science business as well as forging partnerships, said the people, who asked not to be identified because deliberations are private.
No agreement was reached with the Ludwigshafen, Germany-based firm, one of the people said.
Photo: Reuters
Monsanto’s exchanges with drug maker Bayer were about asset purchases or joint ventures and executives recently met in Chicago, the people said. The talks were focused on the US firm buying two crop-science units from Bayer, including for cotton crops, one of the people said. The discussions are ongoing, the people said, and might be expanded to the purchase of Bayer’s entire crop-science business, one of them said.
Reuters previously reported the talks with Bayer.
Monsanto’s discussions with Bayer, which is based in Leverkusen, Germany, would increase its chances of playing a role in consolidation of the industry as well as putting pressure on BASF for negotiations, the people said.
Representatives for Monsanto, Bayer and BASF declined to comment.
Monsanto, along with the German chemicals companies, was left on the sidelines after US competitors Dow Chemical Co and DuPont Co announced a US$130 billion merger in December last year and China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina, 中國化工) agreed to buy Switzerland’s Syngenta for more than US$43 billion last month.
St Louis-based Monsanto’s unsuccessful approach for Syngenta last year sent ripples through the industry as the other top suppliers of herbicides, genetically-modified seeds and other products raced to calculate the implications of such a tie-up.
Before Syngenta’s tie up with state-owned ChemChina, BASF also discussed various options including a full and partial acquisition of its Swiss peer, including potentially teaming up with Monsanto, people familiar with the matter have said previously.
Weaker currencies are hurting Monsanto’s revenues in foreign markets while the decline in agricultural commodities such as corn and soybeans has reduced profits for farmers, spurring them to cut spending.
Bayer, known for inventing aspirin more than a century ago, reported earnings last month that missed estimates on a decline at the agricultural division.
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
A start-up in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10 percent of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke. Petgas chief technology officer Carlos Parraguirre Diaz said that in
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
Japan intends to closely monitor the impact on its currency of US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs and is worried about the international fallout from the trade imposts, Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said. “We need to carefully see how the exchange rate and other factors will be affected and what form US monetary policy will take in the future,” Kato said yesterday in an interview with Fuji Television. Japan is very concerned about how the tariffs might impact the global economy, he added. Kato spoke as nations and firms brace for potential repercussions after Trump unleashed the first salvo of