US: Dow divests US$1.1b seed business

As part of The Dow Chemical Company’s journey to merge with DuPont, the US multinational is divesting a portion of its Brazilian corn hybrid business to CITIC Agri Fund, a state-owned investment company in China, for US$1.1 billion.

The divestment marks the continued progress in the proposed Dow and DuPont transaction, with Dow entering into a definitive agreement with CITIC Agri Fund for a purchase price of US$1.1 billion.

The scope of the divestiture includes seed processing plants and seed research centers, a copy of Dow AgroSciences’ Brazilian corn germplasm bank, the Morgan seed brand and a license for the use of the Dow Sementes brand for a certain period of time.

The assets being divested generated revenues in 2016 of approximately US$287 million.

The divestiture is intended to satisfy Dow’s commitments to Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) in connection with its conditional regulatory clearance of the proposed merger with DuPont.

It will be conditioned on Dow and DuPont closing their merger transaction, in addition to typical closing conditions, including approval of the divestiture transaction by CADE.

“Today’s announcement further advances the regulatory approval process, and maintains the strategic logic and value creation potential of our merger with DuPont and the three independent companies we intend to create,” said Andrew Liveris, Dow’s chairman and CEO.

Full Content: AgriMoney

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