Bayer-Monsanto merger clears major regulatory hurdle

Bayer's prospective merger with agricultural firm Monsanto has moved closer to completion after the sale of some of Bayer's assets to rival BASF SE enabled it to win EU antitrust approval. 

BASF SE paid USD 7.4 billion (GBP 5.2 billion) for Bayer's vegetable seeds units, pesticides division and digital agriculture technology, which was sufficient to persuade the EU that the merger would not be anticompetitive.

EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said: “Our decision ensures that there will be effective competition and innovation in seeds, pesticides and digital agriculture markets also after this merger." She noted a particularly important consideration was that the number of global firms operating in these markets remained constant despite the merger.

Worth USD 62.5 billion, the merger was agreed in September 2016 but its sheer scale has meant the transaction was always likely to attract the attention of regulators. 

Indeed, there have been more than a million petitions against the deal, Ms Vestager revealed, although she noted that many of the concerns raised – such as Monsanto's role in developing genetically-modified crops into the food chain – did not constitute legitimate grounds to block a merger. 

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