Listen Here Agribusiness Matters 5-26-16
By Ken Root and Whitney Newman
Monsanto will reject the $62 billion bid from Bayer and seek a higher price. Monsanto company officials believe a deal with the German-based Bayer could get antitrust and regulatory approval. The Monsanto Board of Directors says the current offer is incomplete and financially inadequate. Bayer will have to decide if it wants to raise its bid in the face of shareholder criticism that the $122 per-share is already too high. Other options for Bayer include walking away from the deal or mounting a hostile takeover bid. The Monsanto Board of Directors has not set a timeline for further discussion with Bayer. Global agrochemical companies are trying to consolidate, in part, due to lower commodity prices. Seed and pesticide markets are also increasingly converging.
The U.S. is not the only country where momentum for getting the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement passed has been slowed by politics. The Japanese government has slowed its process to approve the deal despite formal debate being started in the legislature. The current session ends on June 1st. Sources say, lawmakers are unlikely to vote on the TPP for a number of reasons. Election politics are also in play as an election is set for July in the upper house of Japan?s legislature. Some lawmakers suggest the Prime Minister may want to see parallel movement on TPP in the U.S. in hopes ratification will take place in a similar time frame to the United States.
