Monsanto Offers to Pay Syngenta $2 Billion If Takeover Fails

[donnay]

Monsanto Offers to Pay Syngenta $2 Billion If Takeover Fails

by Jack Kaskey
June 7, 2015 — 7:30 PM EDT

Monsanto Co. is prepared to pay a $2 billion break-up fee should its $45 billion takeover bid for Syngenta AG fail as it presses to jumpstart talks on combining its leading franchise for genetically modified seeds with the world’s largest maker of agricultural chemicals.

The break-up fee would be payable if Monsanto is unable to obtain global regulatory approvals, the company said in a statement. Monsanto reiterated that it would sell all overlapping businesses and that it’s “confident” it can obtain needed clearances.

Syngenta on May 8 rejected an unsolicited offer of 449 francs a share, with 45 percent in cash, saying it undervalued the company and doesn’t sufficiently compensate for antitrust risks. Syngenta would consider entering talks if Monsanto raises its offer and adds a multibillion-dollar termination fee, people with knowledge of the situation said last week.

Basel, Switzerland-based Syngenta considers a termination fee around 10 percent of the purchase price, or $4.5 billion at the current bid, as reasonable, one of the people said, though no concrete amount had been set.

Monsanto, based in St. Louis, has agreed to sell Syngenta’s seed and genetically engineered traits as well as any overlapping crop chemicals to win regulatory approval. Chemicals that would be sold include Syngenta’s glyphosate and acetochlor herbicides, a person with knowledge of the matter said last week.

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[donnay]

Syngenta Rejects Monsanto’s $45 Billion Bid

[donnay]

Monsanto targets tax inversion strategy with Syngenta offer

[Created4]

I think Monsanto sees the handwriting on the wall, particularly for glyphosate's fate. Syngenta would give them chemicals to use to replace glyphosate...

[donnay]

Monsanto Wants To Buy Swiss Agribusiness Syngenta To Become Even More Powerful

By Joe Satran

You know you're unpopular when not even a company notorious for selling chemicals banned in Europe for harming defenseless invertebrates wants anything to do with you.

What company could be this toxic? Monsanto, of course. For more than a year, the controversial St. Louis-based company, best known for selling genetically engineered corn and soybean seeds, has been trying to buy Swiss agribusiness Syngenta in order to form the biggest agricultural technology conglomerate in the world. But Syngenta has resisted Monsanto's overtures not one, not two, but three times in a row.

Monsanto's first offer for Syngenta came in mid-2014. Monsanto was said to value Syngenta, which specializes in herbicides, fungicides and other agricultural chemicals, including one that has been associated with sexual abnormalities in amphibians, at around $40 billion. The talks were private, and have largely remained so, according to Bloomberg, so it's not clear exactly how they fell apart.

The same cannot be said of Monsanto's more recent attempts to buy Syngenta. Monsanto returned to Syngenta in April of this year and reportedly offered to pay $45 billion for the company.

But Syngenta executives said that the offer was too small, the Wall Street Journal reports, and that they were worried that a merger between the two companies would attract unwanted attention from antitrust regulators. And with good reason: the Obama administration investigated Monsanto for anticompetitive practices in the seed market from 2010 to 2012.

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[donnay]

Monsanto Meets Syngenta Investors in Push for Buyout Talks

by Jack Kaskey
June 10, 2015

Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed company, met this week with Syngenta AG shareholders in a bid to pressure the Swiss rival into negotiations after a $45 billion takeover offer was rejected.

Chief Operating Officer Brett Begemann and Chief Technology Officer Robb Fraley met Monday and Tuesday in Europe to discuss the merits of the bid with Syngenta investors, many of whom also own Monsanto shares, said Scott Partridge, vice president of strategy. Some shareholders are frustrated the Basel, Switzerland-based company has refused to negotiate, he said.

“I’d suspect they will try to get to Syngenta’s management and board,” Partridge said Wednesday by phone. “If that helps Syngenta’s board and management engage, that would be a good thing because they haven’t engaged thus far.”

Paul Minehart, a U.S.-based Syngenta spokesman, declined to immediately comment.

Syngenta has snubbed Monsanto’s unsolicited offer of 449 Swiss francs ($480) a share, with 45 percent in cash, deeming it too low and the execution risk too high. The bid represents a 43 percent premium to Syngenta’s share price at the close on April 30, just before Bloomberg News reported the proposal.

Monsanto rose 0.1 percent to $114.62 at 9:47 a.m. in New York. Syngenta fell 0.3 percent to 400.50 francs in Zurich, valuing the company at 37.2 billion francs.

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[angelatc]

I think Monsanto sees the handwriting on the wall, particularly for glyphosate's fate. Syngenta would give them chemicals to use to replace glyphosate...

Yeah, best that the farmers go back to the chemicals that they used before glyphosate, right?

[angelatc]

Actually, based on the activity in the price of the shares, it looks to me like the investors think it is going to happen. I hope it does, just to piss you guys off.

All these years spent bitching about Monsanto made no sense when Sygenta was responsible for putting more chemicals into the food supply

But its not like you anti-evidence conspiracy queens make any sense anyway.

[donnay]

Monsanto, Syngenta said to be close on deal price

At least one major investor, hedge fund manager John Paulson, believes the agricultural giant Monsanto and Syngenta, the Swiss pesticide company it offered to buy in May, continue to be in deal talks and aren't far apart on price, according to someone who has been briefed on the matter.

Paulson, who reportedly took a small stake in Syngenta in recent months, would likely use that position to support a Monsanto purchase if the economics were attractive, this source said. Paulson met recently with the Swiss company's management and thinks they could be receptive to an improved deal, added this person.

The existence of Paulson's Syngenta stake and his likely support for the deal were first reported by Bloomberg News.

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[Natural Citizen]

Monsanto had a negative credit rating there for a while recently. Monsanto's rating was downgraded from neutral to negative following Syngenta's announcement that it had refused Monsanto's unsolicited bid of CHF449 per Syngenta share in a combination of cash and stock. I haven't looked at it in while, though. There is some interesting things happenng at the moment from a geo-political perspective. Some desperate scrambling...

Russia just drafted a bill to add 7 more countries to its food embargo list. And, of course, they don't call it the Asian Infrastructure Development Bank for nothing. What we're seeing has essentially been predicted to the mark around here if we know where to look.

[donnay]

Monsanto sweetens the deal to Syngenta.

Monsanto ups Syngenta bid, values firm at $47B
3 Hours Ago
Reuters


U.S.-based Monsanto sweetened its offer to buy Switzerland's Syngenta, valuing the company at around $47 billion as it tries to lure the Swiss firm to the negotiating table, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Monsanto, which wants to combine its world-leading seeds business with Syngenta's own seeds and pesticides, raised its offer to 470 Swiss francs ($501.98) per share from CHF 449 per share, the person said.

The increased offer, which sent Syngenta's shares jumping, is aimed at ending the stalemate between the two firms. Syngenta rejected a previous proposal in April and has refused to open its books to its rival.

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