The European Commission has conditionally approved under the EU Merger Regulation the acquisition of parts of Bayer's (BAYRY) Crop Science business by BASF (BASFY).

This transaction is related to the Bayer/Monsanto (MON) merger divestment commitments.The decision follows the Commission's conditional clearance in March 2018 of Bayer's planned acquisition of Monsanto. Bayer committed to divest an extensive remedy package worth well over EURO$6 billion to address the competition concerns on overlaps between Bayer and Monsanto in seeds, pesticides, and digital agriculture. The Commission concluded that this divestment package would enable a suitable buyer to sustainably replace Bayer's competitive effect in these markets and continue to innovate, for the benefit of European farmers and consumers. The Bayer Divestment Business includes: Bayer's entire vegetable seeds business; Bayer's entire broad acre seeds and traits business including its R&D organisation, subject to limited carve-outs; a number of Bayer non-selective herbicide assets, in particular Bayer's global glufosinate business assets and three lines of research; a number of Bayer nematicidal seed treatment assets and products; and Bayer's global digital agriculture assets and products.

Since BASF does not currently sell seeds or non-selective herbicides and has only recently started to develop a limited offering in digital agriculture, the Commission did not identify competition concerns with most parts of the transaction.