It was announced on 19 May 2016 that Bayer has agreed the sale of its garden consumer business sector of Bayer’s Environmental Science unit to SBM Développement (SBM). This was followed on 23 May by a public statement of the companys bid to acquire Monsanto.
Both releases came from Bayer’s corporate HQ in Leverkusen, Germany.
Divestment of consumer garden business
The consumer garden business encompasses the Bayer Garden and USA-based Bayer Advanced businesses in Europe and North America. These business sectors provide innovative home and garden solutions for hobby gardeners and homeowners. SBM is a leader in the home and garden market in France and develops, formulates and produces crop and non-crop solutions for professionals and consumers.
Bayer Garden and Bayer Advanced are part of Environmental Science (known to Pest viewers for Maxforce, Racumin Foam, Ficam etc) a business unit of the Crop Science division that offers a range of high-quality weed and pest control products (such as Baby Bio, Top Rose, Phostrogen etc) for professionals and consumers. The turnover of the Environmental Science unit in 2015 was EUR 819 million, to which the Bayer Garden and Bayer Advanced businesses contributed EUR 239 million.
Editor’s note: So there is no confusion, this sale only involves the garden consumer side of the Bayer Environmental Science business sector. Readers can rest assured the pest control professional team remains unaltered and its business as usual.
“In SBM, we’ve found a strategic acquirer that can provide the Bayer Garden and Bayer Advanced businesses and people with a long-term vision and perspective to reach their full potential,” remarked Dr. Jacqueline Applegate, Head of Environmental Science and Member of the Crop Science Executive Committee. “At the same time, divesting the Consumer business will enable Environmental Science to become even more growth-oriented and strengthen our market leadership position with a single-minded focus on the unique needs of our professional customers.”
Mega million acquisition of Monsanto
There has been speculation regarding the proposed acquisition of Monsanto for some weeks. In response to this speculation and stakeholder inquiries, Bayer publicly disclosed the contents of its private proposal to acquire Monsanto. Bayer has made an all-cash offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of common stock of Monsanto Company for USD 122 per share or an aggregate value of USD 62 billion.
This transaction would bring together leading seeds & traits, crop protection, biologics, and digital farming platforms so creating the world’s largest seed and pesticide business. Earlier this year Monsanto, tried and failed three times to buy the Swiss agribusiness, Syngenta, which was eventually sold in February to ChemChina.
Specifically, the combined business would benefit from Monsanto’s leadership in seeds & traits and Bayer’s broad crop protection product line across a comprehensive range of indications and crops. The combination would also be truly complementary from a geographic perspective, significantly expanding Bayer’s long-standing presence in the Americas and its position in Europe and Asia/Pacific. Customers of both companies would benefit from the broad product portfolio and the deep R&D pipeline.
Under the proposed transaction, the combined business would provide attractive opportunities for the employees of both companies and have its global Seeds & Traits and North American commercial headquarters in St Louis, Missouri, its global Crop Protection and divisional Crop Science headquarters in Monheim, Germany, and an important presence in Durham, North Carolina, as well as many other locations throughout the U.S. and around the world. Digital Farming for the combined business would be based near San Francisco, California.
