Monsanto Withdraws Bid For Syngenta
August 26, 2015 Monsanto Co. abandoned its latest effort to acquire Syngenta AG, the world’s top maker of pesticides, after a sweetened bid valuing the Swiss company at $46.2 billion was rejected, reports Jack Kaskey on Bloomberg.com.
Syngenta’s shares plunged by a record 18 percent, and Monsanto’s stock headed for the biggest gain in six years.
Monsanto raised its cash-and-stock offer on Aug. 18 to 470 Swiss francs a share from 449 francs, based on stock prices at the time, the St. Louis-based company said Wednesday in a statement. The sweetened bid was worth 433 francs based on Tuesday’s closing price and was unanimously rejected by Syngenta’s board, the Basel, Switzerland-based company said in a separate statement.
Monsanto Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant was making his third approach since 2011 to create the largest global producer of seeds and crop chemicals. Syngenta, which has said Monsanto undervalued the company’s prospects and underestimated antitrust hurdles, now risks incurring the wrath of some shareholders courted by Monsanto.
“Although we had no issue with Monsanto acquiring parts of Syngenta, we believed the regulatory issues would have been difficult to overcome,” Keith Carpenter, a Toronto-based analyst at Canaccord Genuity Corp. who recommends buying Monsanto shares, said in a note.
Read the full story on Bloomberg.com.
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