To finance Monsanto acquisition, Bayer sells Covestro stake for $2.64 bn

Pharmaceutical group Bayer has sold a further stake in plastics company Covestro for 2.2 billion euros ($2.64 billion), placing a holding of 14.2 per cent via an accelerated book-building process.

Covestro was spun off from Bayer in 2015, and Bayer said this latest sale marks the start of the full separation from its former unit.

Bayer, which is buying seed maker Monsanto, raised 1.8 billion euros ($2.15 billion) in January by selling a 10.4 per cent stake in Covestro.

The latest sale of $28.8 million shares to institutional investors valued Covestro stock at 75.50 euros apiece, Bayer said on Friday, bringing the total gains from the sale of Covestro shares to more than 9 billion euros.

"The proceeds from the sale are higher than expected. This will be considered when determining the size of the share capital increase to finance the proposed acquisition of Monsanto," finance chief Johannes Dietsch said in a statement.

Car makers to whiskey blenders: Winners & losers of US-China trade war

China on Wednesday hit back at US President Donald Trump's plan to impose tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports by proposing additional tariffs of 25 per cent on 106 categories of US goods, including soybeans, autos, chemicals and some types of aircraft.

The trade tensions brewing between the world's two largest economies hit global markets, with shares of industrial companies with exposure to Chinese markets, such as Boeing Co and Deere & Co, among the hardest hit.

The following are some of the possible winners and losers among US companies and sectors:

AUTO COMPANIES:

* US automaker General Motors Co urged the two countries to engage in constructive dialogue over trade. The company's stock fell as much as 3 per cent before reversing course to close nearly 3 per cent higher.

* GM rival Ford Motor Co also lost as much as 3 per cent before rebounding to close 1.6 per cent higher while electric carmaker Tesla Inc , which depends on China for 17 per cent of its revenue, fell as much as 5.8 per cent before retracing losses to end up over 7.2 per cent. Shares of Fiat Chrysler fell as much as 3.4 per cent before recovering to end up nearly 2 per cent.

Bayer clears EU hurdle for $62.5-bn takeover of Monsanto with BASF sale

German conglomerate Bayer won EU antitrust approval on Wednesday for it's $62.5 billion buys of US peer Monsanto, the last of a trio of mega-mergers that will reshape the agrochemicals industry.

The tie-up is set to create a company with control of more than a quarter of the world's seed and pesticides market.

Driven by shifting weather patterns, competition in grain exports and a faltering global farm economy, Dow and Dupont, and ChemChina and Syngenta had earlier led the wave of consolidation in the sector.

Environmental and farming groups have opposed all three deals, worried about their power and their advantage in digital farming data, which can tell farmers how and when to till, sow, spray, fertilise and pick crops based on algorithms.

The European Commission said Bayer addressed its concerns with its offer to sell a swathe of assets to boost rival BASF confirming a Reuters story on February 28.

Bayer to win EU approval for $62.5-bn Monsanto deal: Sources

German drug and crop chemicals maker Bayer is set to win conditional European Union antitrust approval for its $62.5 billion bid for world No. 1 seed company Monsanto, two people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The takeover, one of a trio of major deals in the agribusiness sector in recent years, would create a company with a share of more than a quarter of the world's seed and pesticides market.

Shifting weather patterns, competition in grain exports and a souring global farm economy have spurred consolidation among the major players, triggering protests from environmental and farming groups worried about their market power.

Bayer has already pledged to sell certain seed and herbicide assets for 5.9 billion euros ($7.2 billion) to BASF to address EU regulatory concerns.

Monsanto settles GM cotton dispute with three Indian seed firms

Three leading Indian cotton seed makers have settled an intellectual property dispute with Monsanto Co over its genetically modified (GM) seed technology, partly ending a legal tussle that has drawn in the Indian and U.S. governments.

Ajeet Seeds, Kaveri Seed Co Ltd and Ankur Seeds were among six Indian companies that delayed payments to Monsanto, demanding a cut in royalties they paid to the U.S. firm to licence its technology.
"The arbitration proceedings with each of these (three) companies have concluded by way of consent orders which record the mutually discussed and accepted settlement terms," Shilpa Divekar Nirula, CEO of Monsanto India, wrote in a letter to India's farm minister last month, and seen by Reuters.

A ministry spokesman said he was not aware of the letter.

The dispute sparked a series of government actions that prompted the world's biggest seed company to withdraw from some businesses in India, one of the world's most important seed markets, Reuters revealed in a special report earlier this year.

Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) (MMB), a joint venture between Monsanto and local firm Mahyco, licenses a gene that produces its own pesticide to more than 45 local cotton seed companies in lieu of royalties and an upfront payment.

Acting on complaints by some local seed companies that MMB's royalties were too high, the farm ministry last year cut the fees these local firms paid to Missouri-based Monsanto.
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Hindu nationalists, Nuziveedu Seeds feud may make Monsanto abandon India

BREAKING NEWS - Tens of millions of dollars were within reach for M Prabhakara Rao as he prepared in April 2015 to take his Indian cotton seed company public.

The Indian businessman already had $54 million in initial funding from an American private equity investor. Rao had also locked in a long-term licensing agreement with Monsanto Co, the world's largest seed company, for the technology used in genetically modified cotton seeds that made up the majority of his annual sales.

Two months after publishing his initial public offering (IPO) plan, Rao gambled. He sent one of his executives to negotiate a 10 per cent cut in royalties with Monsanto. The multinational said no.

The outcome of that meeting ignited a corporate battle that has left Rao's IPO plans in tatters and drawn in the Indian and US governments. More ominously, the fight has disrupted India's $1.8 billion-a-year seed industry, with Monsanto saying it may abandon the market.

Monsanto's Indian joint venture last July withdrew its application to introduce a new generation of cotton seed technology to India. The existing version, in India for a decade, is losing effectiveness against bollworms, which can wipe out crops. If another company doesn't step into the breach, agricultural economists warn the dispute could damage India's cotton-growing sector - which recently surpassed China's as the world's biggest and last year accounted for more than a quarter of global output, with a value of over $8.5 billion. (READ MORE)