Syngenta May Reconsider Sale of Flower and Veggie Divisions

Chris Beytes

That’s the word from the Internet, where reports have surfaced that a group of shareholders, called the Alliance of Critical Syngenta Shareholders, has asked Syngenta’s Board of Directors to reconsider the proposed sale of the flower and vegetable divisions, which the group calls “questionable.”

The Alliance wants Syngenta to deliver “value” to the shareholders. A sale of those seed divisions would only “mollify short-term shareholders” and is not a long-term strategy, they say.

In response, the Board accepted a meeting in late November with the group. In that meeting, Michel Demaré, Chairman, addressed several concerns, including the sale of the seed business. As the alliance reported it, “Mr. Demaré stressed that nothing had changed about the company’s general strategy of providing integrated solutions for the seed and crop protection business,” and that “Mr. Demaré also said that the company may reconsider the previously-announced sale of its flower and vegetable seed business.”

Read the full reports from the Alliance at www.critical-syngenta-shareholders.com/en-us.  

Could Syngenta Flowers become Chinese-owned? That’s a possibility based on two things: The comment above regarding the reconsideration of the divestiture of the flower division, and the news that ChemChina has been making bids for Syngenta. What would that mean to the flower business? Who knows? The flower business has been a global one since George Ball visited Japan and Europe in the 1930s, so another Asian breeding company is no big deal.

In November, Syngenta turned down a $42 billion bid from the China National Chemical Corp., known as ChemChina. Bloomburg Business is now reporting that ChemChina might up their offer to $44.6 billion. That’s still less than Monsanto’s bid of $46.6 billion in August.

Also impacting Syngenta’s future is the news that competitors Dow Chemical and DuPont have merged. Analysts say that, plus the offer from ChemChina, could spur a counteroffer from Monsanto.

Will Syngenta still sell off its flower and veggie divisions? Will ChemChina soon be beautifying their offices with Ramblin’ Petunias? Will the Alliance of Critical Shareholders ever find happiness?

Stay tuned! GT