Bayer CropScience To Purchase Seed Treatment Business

Bayer CropScience announced this week it will purchase Crompton's share of Gustafson's seed-treatment business in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The purchase price was $124 million in cash.

The action will give Bayer, which already holds a 50 percent share of the U.S. and Canadian Gustafson joint ventures, full ownership of Gustafson's NAFTA business.

The sale is subject to customary closing conditions. The transactiotn is expected to close by the first quarter.

Gustafson manufactures and marekts seed-treatment products and related equipment. Based in Plano, TX, and Calgary, Can., the company employs about 250 people in the Americas. In 2003, Gustafson sales were about $130 million.

"Purchase of the Gustafson seed-treatment business would allow us to participate directly in this increasingly important segment of NAFTA crop-protection markets," said Emil Lansu, president and CEO of Bayer CropScience LP and head of Bayer CropScience for the NAFTA region.

According to Lansu, the acquisition would give Bayer the benefit of the full range of Gustafson's products, including certain products from third parties, which would continue to make up a key component of the Gustafson product portfolio.