Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — U.S. railway Kansas City Southern said on Sunday it planned to accept Canadian Pacific Railway’s US$27.2 billion cash-and-stock acquisition offer as superior to its US$29.6 billion deal to sell itself to Canadian National Railway. CN now has until the end of Friday to submit a better offer or lose its deal with KCS. […] Read more

Kansas City Southern plans to accept CP’s bid
Deal would create new lanes for Prairie freight, CP says

U.S. railway’s board sticks with CN’s bid
Kansas City Southern board spurns sweetened CP bid
Reading Time: 3 minutes The board of directors for a U.S. railway facing takeover bids from each of Canada’s big two railways is sticking with Canadian National Railway’s (CN) proposal. The board for Kansas City Southern (KCS), in a release Aug. 12, said it unanimously agrees an upgraded Aug. 10 cash-and-stock bid from Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) “does not […] Read more

Biden seeks to lift limits on U.S. farmer dealings with tractor makers, packers
Executive order to address corporate 'abuses of power'
Reading Time: 3 minutes Washington | Reuters — U.S. President Joe Biden wants to give that country’s farmers more power in negotiating the sale of livestock to big processors and in deciding who repairs their tractors, the White House said on Tuesday. The executive order, expected within days, will also address such competitive issues as delayed airline baggage, cellphone […] Read more

U.S. ag secretary backs proposed meatpacking investigator
Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Tuesday threw his support behind a proposal to establish a special investigator to address concerns about anti-competitive practices in the meat and poultry industries. Republican U.S. Senators Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Charles Grassley of Iowa and Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana have proposed legislation […] Read more

Rail shippers pick sides as CP, CN bid for Kansas City Southern
Richardson, Conagra among firms supporting both bids
Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg | Reuters — North America’s freight rail customers, from grain shippers to logistics companies, are choosing sides as Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway fight to buy Kansas City Southern. A takeout of KCS would be the first major North American railroad combination in more than 20 years and create the first network […] Read more

Pilgrim’s Pride strikes deal over U.S. chicken price-fixing charges
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — U.S. poultry company Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. said Wednesday it will pay a US$110.5 million fine after striking a plea deal with the Justice Department over price-fixing charges on chicken products. The guilty plea makes Pilgrim’s Pride, mostly owned by Brazilian meatpacker JBS, the first U.S. chicken company to reach an agreement with the […] Read more

Elanco gets EU’s conditional antitrust OK for Bayer deal
Approval calls for sale of Vecoxan brand, among others
Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters/Staff — Elanco Animal Health secured antitrust clearance on Monday from the European Union to buy Bayer’s veterinary drugs unit, after pledging to sell some products to address competition concerns about the US$7.6 billion deal. The European Commission said the companies will sell either Elanco or Bayer’s products or those in the pipeline, including licenses, […] Read more
Probe eyes possibility of ‘co-ordinated behaviour’ in Big Ag
Competition Bureau probes majors' response to FBN's Canadian launch
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canada’s Competition Bureau is investigating leading agriculture companies for allegedly attempting to drive a California-based online farm-supply retailer out of the Canadian market. Documents filed in Federal Court show Federated Co-operatives, Cargill, Winfield United Canada, Univar Canada, BASF Canada Inc., Corteva and Bayer CropScience (and, by extension, Monsanto Canada) are all under investigation. Investigators with […] Read more

Pulse weekly outlook: FCC sees opportunities for exports
Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Farm Credit Canada (FCC) on Tuesday released a report titled Diversifying Canada’s agriculture exports, which included pulses and also looked at some of the pros and cons to diversifying Canada’s wheat, canola and soybeans. “Canada has done extremely well in establishing strong trade relations in a number of key markets thanks to a […] Read more

Canada clears Bayer’s Monsanto play, with conditions
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canada’s Competition Bureau says it’s “actively reviewing” BASF’s suitability as a buyer of the crop seed and chemical assets Bayer has to sell to get the bureau’s blessing to buy Monsanto. The Competition Bureau said Wednesday it has an agreement with Bayer to deal with “concerns that the proposed transaction would have significantly harmed competition […] Read more