European Commission approves BASF deal to acquire Bayer assets
The European Commission has approved agrochemical company BASF’s acquisition of some of Bayer’s crop science business after BASF vowed to sell certain assets.
Germany-based Bayer is selling its assets as part of a remedy package addressing competition concerns related to Bayer’s $62.5 billion acquisition of agrochemical company Monsanto.
In March, the European Commission approved Bayer’s acquisition of Monsanto, subject to conditions which included Bayer’s commitment to divest an “extensive remedy package” worth more than €6 billion ($7.2 billion).
Bayer will divest its entire vegetable seed business, including its research and development organisation, in a bid to address the parties’ overlaps in seeds, pesticides and digital agriculture.
At the time, it had already reached a deal to divest almost all of its global broadacre seeds and trait business to BASF.
Earlier this week, on Monday, April 30, the Commission approved BASF’s acquisition of the assets.
Bayer’s deal with BASF also included the sale of glufosinate assets and three lines of research for non-selective herbicides to BASF, along with providing a licence for its current offering and pipeline on digital agriculture to BASF.
BASF pledged to divest one of the overlapping lines of research for the development of non-selective herbicides and its pipeline for its nematicidal seed treatment product, Trunemco.
The Commission had had concerns that the transaction would have “reduced innovation competition” for the development of certain non-selective herbicides as well as potential competition for the production of nematicidal seed treatments.
It added: “The Commission therefore concluded that the proposed transaction, as modified by the commitments, would no longer raise competition concerns. The decision is conditional upon full compliance with the commitments.”
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