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BAYER

Bayer’s Monsanto takeover less lucrative than expected

German pharma and chemicals giant Bayer said Friday that savings from its hoped-for takeover of US seeds and pesticides behemoth Monsanto will be smaller than previously thought.

Published: 26 May 2018 09:20 CEST
Bayer's Monsanto takeover less lucrative than expected
People protesting against the Bayer-Monsanto merger in Hamburg earlier this month. Photo: DPA

The company expects the savings from splicing the two businesses together will amount to $1.2 billion (1.03 billion euros) per year from 2022 onwards.

That's short of the $1.5 billion trumpeted by executives when the merger plans were inked in September 2016.

Nevertheless, “I'm convinced that this acquisition has very great potential for creating value,” chief executive Werner Baumann told investors at the group's annual general meeting in Bonn.

Bayer has been forced by competition authorities including the European Commission to sacrifice existing activities in seeds and pesticides worth 7.6 billion euros to home-grown rival BASF in exchange for approval of the Monsanto deal.

That means there will be less overlap and fewer savings when Bayer assumes the US firm's product range of genetically-modified seeds and compatible pesticides.

The German firm needs to find some 44 billion euros in new cash — from borrowing and issuing new shares — to fund the $62.5-billion Monsanto takeover, German business daily Handelsblatt calculated Friday.

Lower savings from the merger will then mean less funds available to pay off the new debts.

“Bayer will indebt itself massively over Monsanto. But it's manageable if the agrochemical division plus Monsanto turns into the promised cash machine,” Handelsblatt judged.

Executives hope the one remaining major green light will come from the US Department of Justice before a June 14th deadline, after which Monsanto could withdraw from the deal if the needed approvals have not been secured.

“We anticipate being able to close the acquisition of Monsanto in the near future,” Baumann insisted.

Some 200 people demonstrated against the Bayer-Monsanto merger outside the AGM Friday, including a woman wearing a wedding dress and a skull mask holding 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).

READ ALSO: Bayer chief promises no Monsanto GM crops in Europe

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MONSANTO

French police to probe alleged Monsanto lists on opinion-makers

France has opened a preliminary enquiry into allegations that US pesticides maker Monsanto had information illegally collected on the views and pliability of hundreds of high-profile figures and media outlets.

Published: 11 May 2019 08:49 CEST
French police to probe alleged Monsanto lists on opinion-makers
Activists from the 'Attac' protest group scale the offices of Bayer -which recently acquired Monsanto- in La Garenne Colombes near the financial district of La Defence on the outskirts of Paris. Photo
Paris judicial police will carry out the probe following a complaint by the daily Le Monde and one of its journalists, whose names appear on the list, the Paris prosecutor's office said.
 
Two anti-pesticide NGOs — Foodwatch and Generations Futures — are also preparing to lodge legal complaints over the alleged lists.
 
The investigators will look into the possible “collection of personal information by fraudulent, unfair or illicit means”.
   
US giant Monsanto allegedly had public relations agency FleishmanHillard draw up the files on the opinions of the targeted people and media bodies on the controversial weedkiller glyphosate and on genetically modified crops as 
well as their propensity to be influenced in their opinions.
 
 
Figuring on the list are politicians, scientists and journalists — including four from AFP (Agence France-Presse). Information was collected on their views on pesticides and on Monsanto as well as their leisure pursuits, addresses and phone numbers, according to the France 2 public television channel.
   
Some of the names were listed under categories such as “priority targets” and “potential allies to recruit”, according to reports.
   
France's former environment minister Segolene Royal, whose name was said to appear on the lists, said the allegation “says a lot about the methods of lobbyists… they carry out spying, infiltration, seek to influence, sometimes financially I imagine”, adding that other companies are likely to indulge in similar practices.
   
A spokesman for FleishmanHillard told AFP: “FleishmanHillard and our staff are committed to compliance with applicable laws and we are committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct. 
   
“We continue to take that responsibility very seriously and will carefully examine the questions raised by certain media outlets about the lists of stakeholders that included publicly available information.”
   
Glyphosate developer Monsanto was convicted in the United States in 2018 and 2019 of not taking necessary steps to warn of the potential risks of Roundup — their weedkiller containing the chemical, which two California juries found caused cancer in two users.
   
German pharmaceutical firm Bayer, which bought Monsanto last year, announced last month that over 13,000 lawsuits related to the weedkiller have been launched in the US. 
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