Bayer has filed a lawsuit against the FAS because of the deal on the merger with Monsanto

Источник: The DairyNews
Bayer has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Antimonopoly service of the Russian Federation because of the deal with Monsanto, said the head of the FAS Igor Artemyev.
"The largest German company Bayer, which merges with the company Monsanto, has just filed a lawsuit against us", - said Artemyev, speaking at a meeting with the deputies of "United Russia" in the State Duma.

"We demand from them to transfer a large part of the technologies for our agricultural industry in exchange for the consent of the Antimonopoly authority, because they have such big data that if they are launched in a combined form, we will have little left from our agriculture," he said.

"This is our first trial with them. They filed (a lawsuit) last week and said that they are ready not to make this deal on the territory of Russia, and would leave", - said the head of the FAS.

In its turn, Bayer later on Tuesday announced that the lawsuit against the FAS does not exclude the negotiation of conditions for the deal with Monsanto.

"Bayer exercised its right to appeal against the order and applied to the court. This step is procedural and will not affect the possibility of negotiations to reach a mutually beneficial agreement in order to support the further innovative development of Russian agriculture," said in the press service of the company.

According to the arbitration files, Bayer's lawsuit against the FAS was registered on February 8. The company seeks recognition of "decisions and actions (omissions) as illegal". The third parties in the proceedings are CJSC "Monsanto", Monsanto International and LLC "Monsanto Rus".

The claim will be considered in the Arbitration court of Moscow. "We hope to win this trial, as we won against Google, Apple and others, because we found some not very standard solutions", - said Artemyev.

In November 2017 the FAS announced that it can agree on a deal Bayer - Monsanto in the case that Bayer will fulfill the behavioral requirements, including the transfer of technologies in the field of plant breeding. The period of consideration of the application of German Bayer AG for the purchase of 100% shares of American Monsanto was extended for three months.

The Antimonopoly service came to the conclusion that the deal could create significant risks for competition on the Russian market, which should be excluded at the stage of its approval. The deal affects the markets of seeds, plant protection products, in particular, non-selective herbicides, as well as digital offers for farmers. Behavioral requirements for the approval of the deal include the transfer of technologies in the field of plant breeding, necessary to create new varieties and hybrids, applicable in the Russian agro-climatic conditions, on the basis of non-exclusive license, as well as access to databases for Russian companies in the field of digital agriculture.
In January Artemyev held a meeting with the top managers of Bayer, the parties expressed their readiness to continue negotiations "on all contentious issues in order to reach a mutually acceptable solution", reported the FAS then.

Deputy Head of the FAS Andrey Tsyganov was also positive: the Antimonopoly service continues to discuss the details of technology transfer with Bayer and expects the process to be completed in the scheduled time. "We still have time, this deal is being considered not only in Russia, it is being considered in a variety of foreign jurisdictions, almost in all major ones, including the US, the EU, China, India and Brazil. Decisions in these jurisdictions have not yet been taken. In fact, it seems to me that the global closing of this deal may occur in spring, but not at the beginning. I think that we will complete this process within the deadlines we have set," he said at the end of January.

Bayer and Monsanto signed a final merger agreement in September 2016. The deal cost is $66 billion ($128 per share of Monsanto). Bayer will finance the purchase with its own and bank funds.

Read full article in Russian on DairyNews.ru
30.01.2024
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