US: Bayer said to explore bid for $43 billion Monsanto

Bayer AG is exploring a potential bid for US competitor Monsanto Co. in a deal that would create the world’s largest supplier of seeds and farm chemicals, according to people familiar with the matter.

The German firm has held preliminary discussions internally and with advisers about buying Monsanto, which has a market value of about $43 billion, said the people, who asked not to be named because the deliberations are private.

Bayer, which is valued at about 79 billion euros ($90 billion), has discussed how to finance a deal including potential asset sales, the people said. No final decision has been made and the Leverkusen-based company could decide against a bid or pursue other transactions with Monsanto, including joint ventures or asset sales, the people said.

Putting the world’s largest seed maker together with the German company that invented aspirin would bring together brands such as Roundup, Monsanto’s blockbuster herbicide, and Sivanto, a new Bayer insecticide lethal to aphids and whiteflies but not to bees, as well as seeds for crops ranging from corn to sugar cane.

Such a deal would face regulatory scrutiny amid an unprecedented wave of consolidation in the crop-chemicals industry. Government regulators globally have nixed more than $20 billion in deals this week, including CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd.’s bid to buy Telefonica SA’s O2 wireless carrier in the U.K. and the merger of Staples Inc. and Office Depot Inc.

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