After recently announcing it plans to divest its flowers seeds business — and a week after Monsanto announced it was dropping its bid for the Swiss company — Syngenta says it will divest its global vegetable seeds business in an effort to boost shareholder value creation.
“This industry-leading, high margin [vegetable seeds] business has a significant global footprint and a wide array of best-in-class varieties. As such, it is expected to attract significant third-party interest,” Syngenta says in a statement.
The company also announces its intention to return “significant levels” of capital to shareholders through a share repurchase program. The initial program of more than $2 billion will commence in the coming weeks. This will be in addition to the dividend policy which the company has followed for several years.
“By demonstrating and unlocking the inherent worth of our leading global seeds portfolio we can create significant additional value. I look forward to updating shareholders in the coming months on progress, including providing further visibility on the underlying profitability of our portfolio of assets,” Syngenta CEO Mike Mack says in a statement.
For the full statement visit: http://www.syngenta.com/global/corporate/en/news-center/news-releases/Pages/150903.aspx
