Monsanto Company Reaches Agreement with U.S. Department of Justice on Elements of Consent Decree, Set to Complete Its Acquisition of Delta and Pine Land Company
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ST. LOUIS, May 31: Monsanto Company (NYSE:MON) announced today that it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that will allow it to complete its proposed acquisition of Delta and Pine Land Company. Under terms of the agreement, which was filed today in Federal Court in Washington, D.C., Monsanto will be required to divest certain assets including its U.S. branded cotton seed business. Monsanto plans to close its acquisition and resulting divestitures as soon as possible following the required approvals from the court and the DOJ.
Acquisition expected to facilitate greater innovation in the cotton industry
"We remain focused on closing our acquisition of this leading cotton seed brand as soon as possible and continuing its tradition of delivering innovation to the farm," said Hugh Grant, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Monsanto Company.
"We believe our acquisition of Delta and Pine Land will help us facilitate greater innovation within the cotton industry by accelerating the number of products available to cotton farmers and generating new value for our business," Grant said.
Monsanto believes its acquisition of Delta and Pine Land will accelerate the discovery and delivery of new innovation to cotton farmers and the cotton industry. By combining Monsanto's technology with Delta and Pine Land's germplasm, cotton farmers are expected to realize enhanced benefits through the development of higher-yielding genetics and next generation technologies like water use efficiency, cotton fiber quality improvements and protection against sucking insect pests.
Monsanto announces divestiture agreements, takes steps to support consent decree elements
In line with its agreement with the DOJ, Monsanto announced that:
o It has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Stoneville®
cotton seed brand and related business assets, subject to Justice
Department approval, to Bayer CropScience for $310 million. As part of
this agreement, Monsanto has agreed to sell to Bayer CropScience
certain conventional cotton parental lines that Monsanto will acquire
from Delta and Pine Land's cotton breeding program. Monsanto will
retain a non-exclusive license to these same parental lines. Bayer's
FiberMax® brand and the Stoneville brand will continue to be licensed
to use Monsanto's cotton trait technologies.
o It has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its NexGen(TM)
cotton seed brand and related business assets, also subject to Justice
Department approval, to Americot for $6.8 million. As part of this
agreement, Monsanto has agreed to sell to Americot certain conventional
cotton parental lines that Delta and Pine Land acquired from Syngenta
in 2006. The Americot® and NexGen brands will continue to be licensed
to use Monsanto's cotton trait technologies.
o It will be amending certain cotton licensing agreements so that its
other cotton licensees have the same terms that Delta and Pine Land
enjoyed with regard to the use of third-party trait technologies.
o It will provide to Syngenta certain germplasm in Delta and Pine Land's
breeding pipeline that contains VIPCot(TM) trait technology. This
action is intended to allow Syngenta to continue its development of
this technology.
Monsanto outlines expected next steps as it works to close acquisition
During the interim period between when the company completes its acquisition and when it completes its divestitures, the Delta and Pine Land business will operate independently of Monsanto's other commercial operations.
Monsanto has been cooperating with the DOJ regarding the proposed divestitures and is now requesting final approval of those divestitures from the DOJ under the terms of its agreement. Once the divestiture of the Stoneville and NexGen businesses has been completed, Monsanto will begin working to combine the Delta and Pine Land business into its business operations.
About Monsanto Company
Monsanto Company is a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity and food quality. For more information, please visit the company's web site at www.monsanto.com/.
Source: Monsanto Company
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