Yesterday, with the Stock Exchange closed, the deal of the year was by now certain. Now the confirmation has arrived: Monsanto accepted the offer of Bayer, after a meeting that took place today. The final offer is $128 for each share of the American giant of agricultural biotechnology, which thus passes under the control of the German giant. The overall value of the operation reaches the peak of 66 billion dollars (including debt).
The final evaluation includes a premium of 44% with respect to Monsanto's closing on the stock exchange on May 9, reads a press release, on the eve of the first written proposal made by Bayer. The transaction has received the unanimous green light from the boards of directors of both companies.
The merger will create a global colossus of chemistry, agriculture and biotechnology. Bayer specified that equivalent synergies are expected 1,5 billion less costs per year starting from the third year.
Thus ends a long and tiring negotiation, which began four months ago and was conducted with relaunching by Bayer and refusals by Monsanto. Finally the decisive move came when the Germans, somewhat surprisingly, decided to further improve their latest offer of $127,50 per share (in cash) announced last week.
THEinitial offer was $122 per share and last July it had arrived a raise to $125 for each stock. Until today Monsanto had always refused, branding all offers as too low. In the end, the negotiations ended with a compromise, considering that the Americans aimed to push the valuation up to 130 dollars per share.
At this point the next obstacle to overcome is the launch of the Antitrust authorities, who must avoid infringements of competition and the construction of a monopoly. In this respect, however, Bayer has been optimistic in the past, stating that it complements Monsanto in terms of products and geographical presence.
But for the German giant it could still show up an image problem, since Monsanto has been under fire for years for its genetically modified products and is the owner of the pesticide Glyphosat, suspected of being carcinogenic.
