When Monheim, Germany-based Bayer closes its expected acquisition of Monsanto on June 7, the new company will drop the 117-year-old name Monsanto and will operate under the Bayer umbrella.
The acquired products will retain their brand names and will become part of the Bayer portfolio, according to a news release.
Bayer announced its intention to acquire Monsanto in May 2016 and signed an agreement with the U.S. company for $128 U.S. per share in September 2016. Currently that corresponds to a total cost of about $63 billion U.S., taking into account Monsanto’s debt outstanding as of Feb. 28, 2018.
In connection with the comprehensive regulatory approval process, Bayer has agreed to divest businesses that generated 2.2 billion euros in sales in 2017 for an aggregate base purchase price of 7.6 billion euros.
Including Monsanto and taking the divestitures into account, the health and agriculture businesses would have been roughly equal in size in 2017, with total pro forma sales of around 45 billion euros including combined crop science sales of around 20 billion euros, according to the release.
In 2017, the companies together employed about 115,000 people, accounting for the divestments.
As part of the divesture, Bayer has agreed to sell its seed business, including cotton, soybeans and vegetables, to BASF. This includes the FiberMax, Stoneville, Credenz and Nunhems seed brands. Also includes are glufosinate herbicide, marketed as Liberty and Rely; seed treatments including Poncho, VOTiVO, COPeO and ILeVO brands; the LibertyLink herbicide-resistant trait; and the xarvio digital farming platform.
Altogether the deal is worth about $9 billion. The divestures were needed to satisfy antitrust concerns expressed by numerous countries worldwide.
According to the conditional approval from the U.S. Department of Justice, the integration of Monsanto into Bayer can take place as soon as the divestments to BASF have been completed. This is expected to be in about two months.