Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, is also known for the popularity of its Roundup herbicide, beloved by farmers and homeowners alike for its speed and deadly assault on tough weeds. But Monsanto’s ongoing efforts to try to take over Swiss ag chem firm Syngenta, a rival whose product portfolio offers an array […] Read more
Monsanto’s move on Syngenta could mean move away from glyphosate
Monsanto says would divest all of Syngenta’s seed business
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, said Wednesday it plans to divest Syngenta’s seeds and genetic traits businesses as well as some overlapping chemistry assets to win regulatory approval for a takeover of its Swiss rival. “We intend to make this a really clean deal… really easy to get done,” Monsanto president Brett […] Read more
As it woos Syngenta, Monsanto mounts campaign to combat critics
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — As seed and chemical maker Monsanto woos Swiss ag chem firm Syngenta, Monsanto also is trying to win over consumers in key international markets, rolling out social media and marketing campaigns. U.S.-based Monsanto said it has recently launched interactive consumer-oriented websites in China, France, India, Argentina and Brazil, in addition to a lead […] Read more
Monsanto’s Syngenta gambit seen hinging on sale of seed businesses
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
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
Syngenta sales feel effect of low commodity prices
Reading Time: 2 minutes Zurich | Reuters –– Swiss firm Syngenta, the world’s largest maker of crop chemicals, suffered a bigger than expected fall in first-quarter sales having been hit by low commodity prices, the strong dollar and a prolonged winter in the U.S. The price of corn fell about 15 per cent in 2014, on top of a […] Read more
Stacked tolerance traits taking on herbicide-resistant weeds
Next-generation herbicide stacks are on their way to help fight not only weed resistance, but more weed species too
Reading Time: 8 minutes A number of next-generation herbicide-tolerant crops are in the pipeline for soybean and canola growers, but the offerings won’t include any magic bullets. Instead, what we’re likely to see first are more stacked tolerance traits. It’s because life science companies have their own kind of stacking to deal with. Their new traits are lined up, […] Read more
Cargill begins selling GM corn seed at centre of lawsuits
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Cargill has started selling a variety of genetically modified Syngenta corn seed that previously disrupted U.S. grain trading, now that China has approved imports of the biotech crop. Cargill, one of the top U.S. grain exporters, began selling seed containing the Agrisure Viptera trait last month and scrapped a policy that required farmers […] Read more
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