Reading Time: 2 minutes London/Frankfurt | Reuters –– U.S. seeds giant Monsanto is trying to line up buyers for assets worth up to US$8 billion to appease competition authorities before making a fresh takeover approach for Swiss rival Syngenta, possibly within three weeks, industry sources said. Monsanto is expected to tap German chemicals group BASF, an existing joint venture […] Read more
Monsanto’s Syngenta gambit seen hinging on sale of seed businesses
Major Syngenta shareholders would back Monsanto bid, if higher
Reading Time: 2 minutes London | Reuters — Major investors in Swiss agrochemicals firm Syngenta are confident a deal with Monsanto will come off if the U.S. firm ups its initial US$45 billion bid by at least 10 per cent. After rebuffing the takeover offer announced earlier Friday, Syngenta said the bid fundamentally undervalued the firm and that its […] Read more
Monsanto, Syngenta hire advisors on possible takeover
Reading Time: 3 minutes London/Frankfurt | Reuters –– Agricultural companies Monsanto and Syngenta are working with investment banks on a takeover deal that would create an industry behemoth with combined sales of more than US$31 billion, three sources familiar with the matter said. Swiss crop chemicals maker Syngenta is working with Goldman Sachs to assess the merits of a […] Read more
Monsanto reported offering again to buy Syngenta
Reading Time: < 1 minute Reuters — Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, has again approached Switzerland’s Syngenta in recent weeks with an offer to buy the company, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. However, the Swiss crop chemical maker has concerns, as the merger would raise antitrust issues, Bloomberg said. The two companies may again fail to […] Read more
Argentine farmers say Monsanto soy contract breaks local law
Reading Time: 2 minutes Buenos Aires | Reuters — Argentine farm groups on Wednesday asked soy export companies to stop inspecting cargoes for bootlegged biotechnology at the behest of U.S. seed company Monsanto, the latest move in a long conflict between the country’s farmers and Monsanto. Growers in Argentina, the world’s top exporter of soymeal livestock feed, have signed […] Read more
Chinese citizens sue government over transparency on Roundup
Reading Time: 2 minutes Beijing | Reuters –– Three Chinese citizens are taking China’s Ministry of Agriculture to court in a bid to make public a toxicology report supporting the approval of Monsanto’s popular herbicide, Roundup, 27 years ago. The case, a rare example of a lawsuit by private citizens against the Chinese government, comes amid renewed attention on […] Read more
Scientist defends WHO group report linking glyphosate to cancer
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — A World Health Organization group’s controversial finding that the world’s most popular herbicide is “probably carcinogenic to humans” was based on a thorough scientific review and is a key marker in ongoing evaluations of the product, the scientist who led the study said Thursday. “There were several studies. There was sufficient evidence in […] Read more
Monsanto seeks retraction for report linking herbicide to cancer
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Monsanto, maker of the world’s most widely used herbicide, Roundup, wants an international health organization to retract a report linking the product’s chief ingredient to cancer. The company said Tuesday that the report, issued on Friday by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), was biased and contradicts regulatory […] Read more
Monsanto rips cancer agency’s Roundup takedown
Reading Time: 4 minutes The decision by an international group of cancer experts to classify the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide as “probably carcinogenic” has drawn fire from the product’s main maker. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a France-based arm of the World Health Organization, on Friday released its working group’s evaluations on the cancer-causing potential […] Read more
Monsanto settles more U.S. farmer claims over GM wheat
Reading Time: < 1 minute The 2013 discovery of experimental Roundup Ready wheat plants in a farmer’s field in Oregon has led the crop’s developer to settle suits brought by wheat growers in seven U.S. states. Monsanto Co. said Wednesday it had reached a settlement agreement with growers in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, stemming from Japan’s […] Read more