June 4, 2018

GERMANY: German Chemicals And Pharmaceuticals Giant Bayer Will Discard The Name Monsanto When It Takes Over The Controversial U.S. Seeds And Pesticides Producer This Week.

Phys.org
written by Tom Barfield
Monday June 4, 2018

Industry sources said the merged agrichemical division will be called Bayer Crop Science.

German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer will discard the name Monsanto when it takes over the controversial US seeds and pesticides producer this week, it said Monday.

But Bayer executives insisted Monsanto practices rejected by many environmentalists, including genetic modification of seeds and deployment of "crop protection" technologies like pesticides, were vital to help feed a growing world population.

"The company name is and will remain Bayer. Monsanto will no longer be a company name," chief executive Werner Baumann told journalists during a telephone conference.

Bayer's $63 billion (54 billion euro) buyout of Monsanto—one of the largest in German corporate history—is set to close Thursday, birthing a global giant with 115,000 employees and revenues of some 45 billion euros.

Bosses plan to name the merged agrichemical division Bayer Crop Science once the merger is complete, German business newspaper Handelsblatt reported, citing "industry sources".

The Monsanto brand "was an issue for some time for Monsanto management," noted Liam Condon, president of Bayer's crop science division, adding that the US firm's employees were "not fixated on the Monsanto brand" but "proud of what they've achieved".

Weedkiller arms race

Producing high-tech genetically modified seeds, many designed to grow crops resistant to its proprietary pesticides, Monsanto has been a target for environmentalist protests and lawsuits over harm to health and the environment for decades.

"It's understandable that Bayer wants to avoid having bought Monsanto's negative image with the billions it has spent on the firm," said Greenpeace campaigner Dirk Zimmermann.

"More important than giving up the Monsanto name would be a fundamental transformation in the new mega-company's policies," he added, accusing Bayer of having "no interest in developing future-proof, sustainable solutions for agriculture".

Activists fear the firm's addition to Bayer will further reduce competition in the hotly-contested agrichemical sector, limiting farmers' and consumers' choices if they want to avoid GM and chemically treated crops.

What's more, in recent years weeds have begun to emerge that are resistant to products like Monsanto staple glyphosate, marketed as Roundup alongside "Roundup-ready" seeds beginning in the 1990s.

As agrichemical firms scramble to respond with new pesticides and resistant seeds, there are fears of an arms race with ever-more-potent weedkillers.

Some scientists already suspect glyphosate could cause cancer, with a 2015 World Health Organization study determining it was "probably carcinogenic"—although Bayer and other defenders of the chemical have contested the research.

In 2017, attempts to block the European Union's five-year renewal of its approval for the weedkiller were unsuccessful.

But activists are lobbying governments and France has vowed to outlaw the substance within three years.

When launching the Monsanto takeover bid, Bayer also promised it would not introduce genetically modified crops in Europe.

"We will listen to our critics and work together where we find common ground," Baumann said, but added that "agriculture is too important to allow ideological differences to bring progress to a standstill".

With the world population set to reach almost 10 billion people by 2050, Bayer argues its products and methods are needed to meet demand for food.

'Number one in seeds'

Bayer has put massive resources behind the deal, raising $57 billion in financing including a new share issue worth six billion euros announced Sunday.

It will also sell large parts of its existing agrichemical and crop seeds business to BASF in concessions to competition authorities on both sides of the Atlantic.

Once the buyout and the sales to BASF are completed, Leverkusen-based Bayer's crop science business plus Monsanto will account for around half its turnover, with the remainder coming from pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter health products.

At around 19.7 billion euros in 2017, Monsanto and Bayer's combined agriculture sales outweighed those of competitors ChemChina, DowDuPont and BASF, according to figures provided by Bayer.

"We estimate that Bayer will become number one in seeds and number two in crop protection globally" following the merger, analysts at Standard and Poor's wrote Monday.

Nevertheless, the ratings agency downgraded its score for Bayer's debt from "A-" to "BBB", while upgrading the outlook to "stable".

"Bayer's stronger business position in agriculture products... does not fully offset the increased debt in its capital structure," the analysts wrote.
The Local, Germany
written by AFP staff
Monday June 4, 2018

German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer will discard the name Monsanto when it takes over the controversial US seeds and pesticides producer this week, the group said on Monday.

"Bayer will remain the name of the firm. Monsanto will be discontinued as the name of the business," the Leverkusen-based group said in a statement, adding that it expects to close the €54 billion deal on Thursday.

Bosses plan to name the merged agrichemical division Bayer Crop Science once the buyout is complete, German business newspaper Handelsblatt reported, citing "industry sources".

Bayer's takeover bid for Monsanto targets the St Louis-based company for its high-tech genetically modified seeds, many designed to produce crops resistant to its proprietary pesticides.

The mammoth deal will produce a global giant with 115,000 employees and revenues of some €45 billion.

Bayer has put massive resources behind it, raising $57 billion in financing including a new share issue worth €6 billion announced Sunday.

It will also sell large parts of its existing agrichemical and crop seeds business to BASF in concessions to competition authorities on both sides of the Atlantic.

Environmentalists are unhappy with the Bayer-Monsanto tie-up, fearing that it will give too much power to the world's leading manufacturers of genetically modified crops and the controversial weedkiller glyphosate.

In a letter to the European Commission before its March approval of the merger, Friends of the Earth Europe said more than a million people signed petitions calling on EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager to block "this merger from hell".

Last month, some 200 people demonstrated against the Bayer-Monsanto merger outside the German firm's annual general meeting.

One woman wearing a wedding dress and a skull mask brandished a sign warning of a "deadly wedding" between the two firms.

"We can't allow gigantic companies to have control over our food system," said Christian Rollmann of protest group "Wir haben es satt" (We're fed up).

When launching the Monsanto takeover bid, Bayer promised it would not introduce genetically modified crops in Europe.

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