Head of Bayer’s Cropscience division, Liam Condon, said his company was “pretty confident” the deal would be approved by regulators because both companies have “highly complementary” product lines and geographic offerings.
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“Legal restrictions mean we can not provide any local comment about the merger announcement or what it means in Australia”, said Bayer Australia communications manager, Lachlan Bird. A potential cure: dropping the Monsanto name.
FRANKFURT-German pharmaceuticals and chemicals group Bayer AG said Tuesday it is targeting increased sales and earnings growth over the next few years at its drug and crop-science businesses, just days after announcing a planned $ 66 billion takeover of USA seed company Monsanto Co.
Two weeks before the $88 billion buyout deal was confirmed last Wednesday night Bayer quietly pulled the pin on its genetically modified (GM) cotton seed development work, raising questions about the deal’s impact on commercial research and development. Reader’s Digest magazine also named Bayer aspirin the most trusted analgesic brand in 2014. Bayer will need to integrate a company known for making the herbicide Agent Orange for use in the Vietnam War and tangling with environmental groups over genetically-modified crops.
Blome and Fraley said taxes were not a motivator for the deal.
“If anyone can do it, it’s Bayer”, Kregel said.
Environmentalists have campaigned against the deal since talks were first disclosed in May, with celebrities such as Mark Ruffalo and Bianca Jagger tweeting in opposition.
The National Farmers Union in the U.S. joined the cause, saying that the merger and other pending agricultural deals “are being made to benefit the corporate boardrooms at the expense of family farmers, ranchers, consumers and rural economies”, as quoted by the Local.
Also, the two point out that this merger would breach a court order that “prevents Monsanto from reacquiring the assets it was ordered to divest to redress antitrust concerns”.
U.S., European Union and other global regulators are reviewing Dow and DuPont’s plan to merge.
On September 14th, Bayer, a German company known for its agrochemical and pharmaceutical businesses, announced its plans to take over Monsanto, an American multinational agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation. The proposed purchase comes after a pending deal between Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co. and China National Chemical Corp.’s planned takeover of Syngenta AG. Although the announcement caused a 2.54% hike in Bayer’s share price, there is a long road ahead for this deal to close. Any of our products commercialized in the US will always need to meet our own high standards as well the standards of the EPA, FDA and USDA review processes.
Bayer is no stranger to public-relations challenges. Environmentalists have called on it to stop selling any GM seeds.
Of course Bayer, has its own controversial history, including its introduction of heroin as a cough suppressant in the late 19th century, and being a Nazi contractor during World War II, which its CEO apologized for in 1995.
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“With the right signals, the right decisions, Bayer can show what will be changed”, Tuengler said.
