News

Nufarm Buys FMC’s European Herbicides

14.11.2017 -

Australian farm chemicals producer Nufarm has snapped up some more agrochemical assets in Europe, this time from US chemical company, FMC.

The Melbourne group will pay $90 million to buy FMC’s SU-class herbicides and Florasulam for post-emergence use to control broadleaf weeds in cereals. Nufarm had hinted late last month that it was close to making another purchase, with the target business anticipated to generate revenues of roughly A$30 million in the 2019 fiscal year.

FMC did not say when the deal was likely to close, other than it remained subject to the usual conditions.

The transaction will satisfy FMC’s commitments to the European Commission in relation to its recent acquisition of part of DuPont’s crop protection business. FMC swapped its health ingredients business and paid $1.2 billion to gain DuPont’s chewing pest insecticides, broadleaf herbicides portfolio and forward pipeline. That deal closed on Nov. 1.

Last month, Nufarm also agreed to pay $540 million to acquire a suite of crop protection products, known as the Century Portfolio, from ChemChina subsidiary Adama Agricultural Solutions and Syngenta. That transaction was also made to satisfy European regulatory requirements relating to ChemChina’s takeover of Syngenta.

In separate news, Nufarm has signed a long-term extension to a series of global collaboration agreements with Sumitomo Chemical. The Japanese company acquired a 20% stake in Nufarm in April 2010, which it subsequently increased in May 2011 to 23%.

The two companies have been collaborating in a number of areas, notably distribution, development and manufacturing. Nufarm said this latest agreement formalizes arrangements between the two on developing and distributing a number of high-value products that are strongly focused on Sumitomo’s fungicide pipeline.

While the collaboration is global in scope, the partners said they will prioritize those markets of strategic importance. They have already agreed to develop mixture products that target Asian soybean rust in Latin America, utilizing a combination of Sumitomo’s and Nufarm’s chemistry.

The companies expect to submit registrations for the products in Brazil from late 2017 onward. Nufarm said Brazilian farmers spend more than $2 billion annually to control soybean rust.