Bayer and Monsanto Begin Selling $2.5B in Assets to Gain Clearance for Merger

Bayer and Monsanto reportedly are beginning the process to sell roughly $2.5 billion worth of assets in order to gain clearance for their proposed $66 billion merger of the two companies.

Originally, the two parties stated they expected to divest assets with combined sales of $1.6 billion.

Bayer is initially dividing businesses for sale into three bundled groups and will be sending out information packets to prospective bidders, including rival, BASF and private equity groups within the next week.

Although the identity of the assets to be sold has not yet been made public, Bayer is expected to offer soybean, cotton, and canola seed assets in addition to LibertyLink-branded crops, as they are in competition with Monsanto’s RoundUp Ready line of products.

Bayer states that it is on pace to gain regulatory clearance by the end of this year, including clearing an extensive inquiry by the EU’s regulatory bodies.

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