Monsanto CEO Expects Planned Sale to Bayer to Go Through

By | December 15, 2016

By Jacob Bunge

The chief executive of U.S. seed giant Monsanto Co. remains confident in the company’s planned sale to German pharmaceutical conglomerate Bayer AG, which he said would help boost U.S. investment in agricultural technology.

The deal, which would rank as the largest-ever takeover of a U.S. company by a German one, is moving toward regulatory reviews in the U.S. even as the November election of Donald Trump as president has raised questions around large-scale merger deals and foreign investment in U.S. companies. During the campaign, Mr. Trump criticized some major merger deals as concentrating too much market power under one company.

Mr. Grant said he hasn’t engaged with the Trump transition team on the Bayer deal.

Mr. Grant said Tuesday’s vote represented a “milestone” in a deal-approval process that is expected to include dozens of regulatory bodies around the world. Bayer has filed the merger plans with U.S. antitrust enforcers and expects to file for approval in the European Union in early 2017, he said. No shareholder vote is required for Bayer, which expects to close the deal by the end of 2017.

Monsanto said that about 99% of shares voted at a special meeting Nov. 7 were cast in favor of the sale to Bayer. About 75% of all Monsanto shares were voted, the company said.

Shareholders were widely expected to back the deal, despite some long-term investors grumbling that the $ 128-a- share sale price agreed to in September was too low.

Monsanto shares recently traded up 0.5% higher at $ 105.11. Bayer shares rose 0.9% to 95.86 euros.

Write to Jacob Bunge at jacob.bunge@wsj.com

    (END) Dow Jones Newswires   12-13-161050ET   Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. 


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