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WHEN DuPont and Dow Chemical agreed to merge in December, the $130 billion deal seemed to be a prime example of American managers’ ruthless pursuit of shareholder value and dedication to building monopoly positions…
What has become clearer since then is that Dow-DuPont is also part of a global trend: a wave of consolidation in the agricultural seeds and chemicals industry.
…In February ChemChina… agreed to pay $43 billion for Syngenta, a big Swiss firm that specialises in selling chemicals to farmers. This week Monsanto…confirmed that it had received an unsolicited takeover approach from Bayer,
Three trends explain the surge in activity. First, a slump in sales: the agricultural-product industry’s top line, growing at 2% in 2014, fell by 10% in 2015. With crop prices low, farmers are spending less. Second, bosses think that selling bundles of products to farmers will be more profitable in the long run…The third trend is specific to Syngenta: China’s government wants to modernise its farms and to own the intellectual property involved, for example seed patents.
Read full, original post: Seedy business
