Monsanto Acquires European Seed Company (MON)

Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) has just announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire De Ruiter Seeds Group B.V., in The Netherlands.  This is a Dutch-holding company that owns and operates De Ruiter Seeds.  The total transaction value was placed at 546 million Euros, or more than $800 million depending on currency exchange rates after backing out the net debt.

Monsanto has been an acquirer of many smaller seed companies in the U.S. and internationally.  The company expects this to build upon vegetable seed business as well as to enhance its growth in the protected-culture segment, which is listed as the fastest-growing space within the vegetable seeds industry.  This acquisition of De Ruiter is expected to help transform Monsanto’s vegetable seed platform into a $1 billion revenue business by 2012.

As a reminder, Monsanto reports earnings this week.  We just did an earnings preview for it and another ag-player.

Monsanto shares are down some 2.5% today at $111.36.

Jon C. Ogg
March 31, 2008

Jon Ogg produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and he can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.