Syngenta to sell seeds business

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Publish time: 4th September, 2015      Source: www.cnchemicals.com
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September 4, 2015

   

   
Syngenta to sell seeds business
   
   

   

Swiss firm Syngentaannounced Thursday it is selling its seeds business and will buy back US$2 billion worth of shares.

   

   

The announcement came a week after its rival US seed giant Monsanto finally abandoned its bid to acquire the leading crop chemicals maker after being repeatedly rejected. The latest sweetened was made on August 18, which included a higher breakup fee of $3 billion (from the previous offer of $2 billion) in case the deal was blocked by regulators. The new proposal also translated to a value of CHF [Swiss franc] 470 ($483) per share.

   

   

Syngenta''s moves apparently were meant to appease shareholders after the company''s share price plunged 18% last week following Monsanto''s decision to just focus on its own growth opportunities to "deliver the next wave of transformational solutions for agriculture".

   

   

Syngenta on Thursday said it would take a series of measures to "accelerate shareholder value creation" and that the divestment of its global seed division was one of these.

   

   

It stressed that the seeds business had "a significant global footprint and a wide array of best-in-class varieties" and that it was "expected to attract significant third-party interest."

   

   

Syngenta said it intended to "return significant levels of capital" to its shareholders through a programme to buy back over $2 billion in shares, which would begin "in the coming weeks.

   

   

"The board and management are determined to accelerate shareholder value creation and our actions today (Thursday) underpin our commitment to do so," chairman Michel Demare said.

   

   

"Our commitment is also shown by the significant capital return programme that we announced today", he added.