Farms.com Home   Ag Industry News

Monsanto rejects Bayer’s latest acquisition attempt

Company calls the proposal “financially inadequate”

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Monsanto rejected Bayer’s latest acquisition proposal.

The company said the offer, estimated to be worth about $65 billion, isn’t enough to finalize a deal.

“(Monsanto’s) Board of Directors unanimously views Bayer AG’s revised proposal as financially inadequate and insufficient to ensure deal certainty,” it said in a release.

Despite rejecting the offer, Monsanto isn’t completely shutting the door on a possible merger.

“Monsanto remains open to continued and constructive conversations with Bayer and other parties to assess whether a transaction that the Board believes is in the best interest of Monsanto shareowners can be realized.”

Rejected

Bayer is upset with Monsanto’s ruling.

In a press release, Bayer said it’s “disappointed in Monsanto’s decision to reject its increased all-cash offer of USD 125 per share, which represents a 40 percent premium over Monsanto’s closing share price on May 9, 2016.”

Bayer said it’s looking forward to further dialogue with Monsanto.

Analysts say regulators may try to stop any deal between the two companies.

"We're on record saying we don't think there's more than a 10 percent chance that these two companies are coming together," Mark Connelly, an analyst at CLSA Americas told CNBC on July 14. "We're in an environment where Washington has been blocking a lot of deals lately."


Trending Video

Funds Ditch Ag Commodities, Chase Stocks Amid an End to Middle East War, & Trade Deal Buzz

Video: Funds Ditch Ag Commodities, Chase Stocks Amid an End to Middle East War, & Trade Deal Buzz


The 12-day war between Iran-Israel came to an end sending crude oil futures plunging as the big fund speculators removed the war risk premium.

The weather risk premium in the Ag complex is sending corn, wheat and soybean futures lower on month-end selling ahead of the market moving USDA quarterly grain stocks and acreage reports on June 30th.

Instead, funds were chasing and sending tech stocks higher with the S&P 500/NASDAQ indexes setting new all-time record highs!

June 1 USDA Hogs and pigs report was slightly bearish while the U.S. $ Index traded to new contract lows as the de-dollarization that began in 2014 continues.

Feed in the form of soybean meal futures for livestock producers got cheaper, trading to new contract lows.

The Stats Canada seeded acreage update was bullish canola and wheat.