Bayer In Exclusive Talks To Sell Vegetable Seeds Business To BASF

Bayer has entered exclusive talks with BASF on the sale of its Nunhems brand of vegetable seeds unit to address antitrust regulators’ concerns over its planned merger with Monsanto, the two companies said.

Any deal is subject to a successful closing of the proposed $62.5-bn acquisition of Monsanto, which Bayer hopes to wrap up in the second quarter, the German group said. International news agency, Reuters, had earlier reported that BASF could buy the vegetable seeds business for roughly 1.5-bn euros ($1.85-bn) including assumed debt.

In October last year, Bayer had already agreed to sell businesses worth 5.9-bn euros ($7.32-bn) to BASF, including glufosinate based herbicides and seed assets.

The deals will help BASF, the world’s fourth largest maker of farming pesticides, gain a foothold in seeds, a business it had previously shunned. The first deal covered “essentially all” of Bayer’s field crop seed businesses, and related development work, including the oilseed canola business in North America and Europe and the global soybean seed business. The global cotton seed business will also go to BASF, but excluding regional units in India and South Africa.

Bayer had said that once it is sure enough that regulators will give it the green light, it would raise fresh equity capital to fund the Monsanto deal, which will make it the world’s largest maker of seeds and pesticides.