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Increased research and development spending by the combined
companies and plans to develop a global seeds and biotechnology
hub in St. Louis fuel hopes regulators will not block the deal,
which was agreed upon in September, Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant
said.
"I think those augur well for the deal," he told Reuters in an
interview.
If the deal closes, it will create a company commanding more
than a quarter of the combined world market for seeds and
pesticides in the fast-consolidating farm supplies industry.
Uncertainty about whether President-elect Donald Trump would
stand in the way of large mergers after taking office in January
has clouded the outlook of some deals. Trump vowed during his
campaign to block AT&T Inc's purchase of Time Warner Inc and
look to break up Comcast Corp's deal to buy NBC Universal,
citing too much concentration of power.
The president does not directly decide if a merger is illegal
under antitrust law. That is done by the U.S. Justice Department
or Federal Trade Commission, which divide up the work of
assessing mergers. If one of the agencies decides to stop a
deal, it must convince a judge to agree.
Grant said he has not met with Trump or any of his transition
team and did not elaborate on how the company was working to
secure the deal.
The acquisition came after a string of large mergers that have
roiled the agribusiness sector in the last year or so, including
ChemChina's purchase of Swiss chemicals company Syngenta AG and
a merger of Dow Chemical and DuPont.
DuPont's chief executive, Ed Breen, said last week the incoming
Trump administration is not likely to have an impact on his
company's merger with Dow Chemical.
Monsanto shares were up 0.4 percent at $105.00 on Tuesday
afternoon, down from the $106.76 closing price on Sept. 14 when
the Bayer deal was announced and well below the $128-per-share
acquisition price.
(Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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