FMC Corporation and DuPont have announced a deal that will see FMC acquire the portion of DuPont’s crop protection business that the European Commission required to be divested as part of DuPont’s merger with The Dow Chemical Company.
FMC will acquire DuPont’s global cereal broadleaf herbicide and global chewing pest insecticide portfolios, as well as much of DuPont’s global crop protection R&D capabilities. In exchange, DuPont will acquire FMC Health and Nutrition and receive $1.2 billion in cash, as well as $425 million in working capital.
DuPont says the deal will satisfy the conditions laid out by the European Commission earlier this week for the merger with Dow.
“We believe this agreement is an excellent outcome that serves the best interests of all stakeholders, including our shareholders, customers and employees,” said Edward D. Breen, chairman and chief executive officer of DuPont.
“Our intended independent Agriculture company will continue to benefit from the combined, complementary strengths of DuPont and Dow, which will include greatly expanded offerings and a robust pipeline across seed germplasm, biotech traits, and crop protection to provide greater choice and innovation to growers around the world,” he continued. “At the same time, we are significantly enhancing our Nutrition and Health capabilities, a key area of growth and opportunity for the intended independent Specialty Products company.”
Philadelphia-based FMC says the deal will make it a top five crop protection chemical company in the world by revenue, with projected annual revenue of approximately $3.8 billion.
“This is a significant step forward for FMC, and for our Agricultural Solutions business in particular,” said Pierre Brondeau, FMC president, CEO and chairman. “The combination of market-leading products from DuPont’s crop protection portfolio and its world-class R&D capabilities will transform our Agricultural Solutions business into a tier-one ag technology company.
The assets FMC is acquiring include:
- Nine active ingredients and multiple formulated products that make up DuPont’s global cereal broadleaf herbicide portfolio, as well as DuPont’s proprietary PrecisionPac® technology. FMC notes this will significantly diversify the company’s herbicide business, as well as increase the balance between pre-emergent and post-emergent applications in FMC’s portfolio. (DuPont broadleaf herbicide brands marketed in Canada include Barricade, Express and Refine.)
- DuPont’s selective insecticide portfolio, consisting of Rynaxypyr®, Cyazypyr® and Indoxacarb. The first two come with full patent protection over their respective active ingredients. FMC expects these products will generate over $1 billion in 2017 revenue.
- A global manufacturing network that includes four active ingredient manufacturing facilities and 10 regional formulation plants. FMC will also receive the intellectual property related to the acquired products, including patents, registrations and data packages.
- Much of DuPont’s crop protection research and development pipeline, including its headquarters in Delaware and 14 regional development labs. FMC says this pipeline includes 15 synthetic active ingredients currently in development, covering insecticides, herbicides and fungicides, and an extensive library of 1.8 million synthetic compounds. The majority of DuPont’s workforce in crop protection research will also be transferred to FMC.
DuPont’s seed treatment, nematicides, and late-stage R&D programs and the personnel needed to support these products are excluded from the deal and will remain with DuPont.
FMC’s Health & Nutrition business, which mainly focused on texturants as food and pharmaceutical ingredients, will be integrated into DuPont’s existing Nutrition & Health business.
To accommodate the FMC deal, DuPont and Dow have pushed back the date by when they expect to close their deal to September 1, 2017. It was previously slated to be completed in the first half of 2017.
The FMC-DuPont exchange is subject to the Dow-DuPont merger going through, as well as the normal regulatory approvals. It’s expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Related: DuPont to Sell Crop Protection Assets to Gain European Approval