Fast expanding agricultural chemical and plant genetics business, BASF, is in exclusive talks to acquire more of Bayer’s seed business.
This time the target is the vegetable seeds business, operating under the global trademark Nunhems.
Bayer is selling the business to comply with anti-trust requirements overseas as it moves to acquire rival chemical giant and seed breeder Monsanto.
Definitive agreements have not been concluded between BASF and Bayer.
Chemical business BASF has more than 115,000 employees in five segments: Chemicals, Performance Products, Functional Materials & Solutions, Agricultural Solutions and Oil and Gas.
BASF generated sales of $102 billion in 2017.
Last year BASF also signed an agreement to acquire significant parts of Bayer’s seed and non-selective herbicide businesses.
That all-cash purchase, worth about for $9.3b (5.9b euros), subject to certain adjustments at closing, includes Bayer’s global glufosinate-ammonium non-selective herbicide business as well as its seed businesses for key row crops in select markets.
The deal covers canola hybrids in North America under the InVigor brand using the LibertyLink trait technology, oilseed rape mainly in European markets, cotton in the Americas and Europe as well as soybean in the Americas.
The transaction also includes Bayer’s trait research and breeding capabilities for these crops and the LibertyLink trait and trademark.
The acquisition complements BASF’s crop protection business and marks its entry into the seed business with proprietary assets in key agricultural markets.
In 2017, BASF’s Crop Protection division generated sales of $9b.