Consolidation in the agrochemical business

People interested in the agrochemical business heared about the merger of DuPont and Dow Chemical by the end of 2015. We also followed the news about possible mergers or take-offs of Syngenta. After Syngenta denied an offer from Monsanto (CEO Mike Mack left the company thereafter under pressure from investors), ChemChina is now interested in a 70% share of Syngenta.

ChemChina is a state-owned company and the liberal newspaper NZZ reports about a paradoxon in liberality to sell a Swiss company to China. And it was the Basler Zeitung in an article (BZ 02/01/2016, PDF) who warned about selling SYN to a Chinese state owned company (“..these communists..”). We all know that a well-known CH politician owns the majority of the BZ – he is often in national and international news, earned his billions also in the chemical industry.

Questions arise: what will happen with the agrochemical sections of DuPont and DOW? Big players such as Bayer Crop Science or BASF might be interested in split-offs, and for sure Syngenta as well. Fact is that SYN share prices are comparable to a roller coaster, here the last years development:

As a specialist in dietary safety I trust in the safety of agrochemical products, I rarely buy organic food. I also believe that modern agrochemical products are required to provide food for a growing population on our planet. However I do not appreciate the pressure from major investors to dominate and control the future of the responsible companies in the field.

The GAME OVER referendum in Switzerland intends to stop the dealing with nutritional products on stock markets. The Swiss government recommends a NO to the referendum, since nutritional products are not included in the SMI (do not forget we have NESTLE here). Anyway, I support this idea and Switzerland could take a exemplary role in this issue.