Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116 Page 117 Page 118 Page 119 Page 120 Page 121 Page 122 Page 123 Page 124 Page 125 Page 126 Page 127 Page 128 Page 129 Page 130 Page 131 Page 132 Page 133 Page 134 Page 135 Page 136 Page 137 Page 138 Page 139 Page 140 Page 141 Page 142 Page 143 Page 144 Page 145 Page 146 Page 147 Page 14890 / SEEDWORLD.COM DECEMBER 2016 FOR PAUL MINEHART, April 30, 2015, was the day con- solidation in the agriculture industry really began. “I got a call from Bloomberg News saying, ‘Monsanto has made an offer to buy Syngenta. Would you like to comment on that?’” says Minehart, head of corporate communications, North America for Syngenta. Of course, consolidation in the industry began long before last year, but for Minehart and others at Syngenta — itself a result of the merger between Novartis Agribusiness and Zeneca Agrochemicals 16 years ago — the past 18 months have been a whirlwind. First it was the news of Monsanto’s attempt to acquire the company, which made headlines in 2015, but didn’t pan out. But when it was announced nine months ago that Syngenta’s board had accepted ChemChina’s offer of $43 billion, the media and ag industry wasted no time in making it a topic of conversation. Currently getting over regulatory hurdles, the deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017, after it was initially expected to pass by the end of this year. Unlike other mergers taking place in the industry right now — namely the Dow-DuPont and Bayer-Monsanto mergers — ChemChina’s acquisition of Syngenta is different, notes Jay Bradshaw, president of Syngenta Canada. “We could merge with another organization, but our strate- gic decision is to change shareholders. Rather than merge with another company, we’re changing the ownership environment. There will only be one shareholder, and that will be ChemChina,” Bradshaw says. “We won’t be at the scrutiny of shareholders — it will be run like a private company.” ChemChina is a chemical giant. Its full name being China National Chemical Corporation, it is a state-owned enterprise established by reorganizing the subsidiary companies under China’s former Ministry of the Chemical Industry. It is ranked 234th on the Fortune Global 500. It has more than 140,000 employees with 52,000 outside China. It operates production and R&D bases in 150 countries and regions across the world and boasts a full-fledged marketing network. “I had a bit of an emotional reaction at first. We were in this long debate negotiation with Monsanto and it was finally over, and then it was very shortly after that the ChemChina option came in,” Bradshaw says about the moment he heard the news. “But I did some research on ChemChina, and think this is a perfect fit. They believe in our company and share our goal to help alleviate food security around the world.” Vern Hawkins, president of Syngenta Crop Protection, agrees that the acquisition will be a huge benefit to Syngenta. Hawkins Syngenta’s acquisition by ChemChina has been an emotional process marked by regulatory hurdles, but company insiders say Syngenta will be better and stronger as a result. Marc Zienkiewicz began his career at Zeneca Agrochemicals 30 years ago, long before it merged with Novartis Agribusiness to become Syngenta. “Syngenta will remain Syngenta,” he says. ChemChina does own crop protection product manufacturer Adama, but the parent company does not have an ag management team, so Syngenta’s team has the experience to run the Syngenta busi- ness, he says. Hawkins notes the acquisition by ChemChina recently under- went a foreign investment security review approved a couple months back. This is a CFIUS review that ChemChina and Syngenta, which is Swiss owned, volunteered to undergo due to its large financial presence in the U.S. “That’s a process not many global people know about, and certainly not many in the U.S. know about,” Hawkins says, noting it’s a confidential review process comprising a number of federal agencies. Ponsi Trisvavet, president of Syngenta Seeds, says that as the process to develop and register new products gets longer and more expensive (the cost has nearly tripled during the past 17 years or so), consolidation will only continue. “As an industry you step back and think, ‘How long can we afford to invest in these innovations? Is there a way we can create something that would help optimize the spending?’ That’s the biggest driver in terms of investment in innovation,” she says. “That drives consolidation. Once you start with one, the rest will come. That’s the nature of consolidation, and we will see more and more of it.” SW The Emotion of an Acquisition Jay Bradshaw is president of Syngenta Canada.