COLOGNE/FRANKFURT - Germany's Bayer AG said April 4, 2001, it was considering buying Franco-German life sciences group Aventis SA's CropScience unit outright, a move that would help it catch up with rivals in the crop sciences field.
Bayer Chief Executive Manfred Schneider told reporters on the sidelines of a conference that he was examining a proposal from Aventis, which is seeking to spin off CropScience to concentrate on its core pharmaceuticals business.
Aventis staff-management committee sources told Reuters on April 3 that the company had sent its CropScience sale proposal to three U.S. firms - Monsanto, DuPont and Dow, as well as to Bayer and its archrival BASF. BASF bolstered its crop science business last year by acquiring American Home Products Corp.'s American Cyanamid Co. (see BASF Purchases AHP’s Cyanamid Division).
The sources said the company had decided to sell rather than float CropScience, and a decision should be taken by the end of June.
A spokesman said Aventis was still considering a sale and an initial public offering.
Bayer and BASF had both previously expressed an interest in buying parts of the unit.
"We could also imagine taking over the whole position," Schneider told reporters but said no decision had been taken.
But in a potential snag to a quick deal, German drugs group Schering AG, which holds 24 percent of the division, reiterated on April 4 that it must give its blessing to any sale and was waiting for valuations in the sector to improve.
A spokesman at the company said Aventis would need its permission to go ahead with the sale.
"The current market situation is such that we would not be able to get a suitable price," the spokesman said, adding Schering was not against the sale in principle.Reprinted from a Reuters news article.