CHICAGO: Shareholders of US seeds and agrochemicals company Monsanto Co approved the company’s $66 billion acquisition by Bayer AG on Tuesday, a deal that still requires regulatory approval to close as expected in late 2017.
Increased research and development spending by the combined companies and plans to develop a global seeds and biotechnology hub in St Louis fuel hopes regulators will not block the deal, which was agreed upon in September, Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant said.
“I think those augur well for the deal,” he said in an interview.
If the deal closes, it will create a company commanding more than a quarter of the combined world market for seeds and pesticides in the fast-consolidating farm supplies industry.
Uncertainty about whether President-elect Donald Trump would stand in the way of large mergers after taking office in January has clouded the outlook of some deals. Trump vowed during his campaign to block AT&T Inc’s purchase of Time Warner Inc and look to break up Comcast Corp’s deal to buy NBC Universal, citing too much concentration of power.
The president does not directly decide if a merger is illegal under antitrust law. That is done by the US Justice Department or Federal Trade Commission, which divide up the work of assessing mergers. If one of the agencies decides to stop a deal, it must convince a judge to agree.— Reuters
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