Swiss chemical company Syngenta received a second offer from St. Louis-based agribusiness Monsanto over the weekend.
The value of the offer was roughly equal to when Monsanto tried to buy Syngenta in April. At the time, the seed giant offered Syngenta a reported $45 billion, a figure that Syngenta pegged as undervalued.
“Monsanto’s second letter represents the same inadequate price, same inadequate regulatory undertakings to close, same regulatory risks and same issues associated with dual headquarters’ moves,” Syngenta CEO Mike Mack said in a letter to shareholders.
The second takeover bid included a $2 billion “reverse regulatory” guarantee should Monsanto fail to obtain needed regulatory approvals. Those approvals largely focus on the fact that both Monsanto and Syngenta are top seeds and herbicide companies in the world, so a merger of the two would likely create monopoly conditions.
Even so, Monsanto executives said those anti-trust issues should not be raised as credible concerns impeding a proposed merger.
“Following up on our recent discussions, I want to reinforce my personal disappointment with the pace of progress in what we seek to be a constructive, good-faith process to negotiate a mutually beneficial transaction,” Monsanto Chairman and CEO Hugh Grant said in the offer letter.
