BAYER-MONSANTO POWER OF TWO

As far as mega mergers go, the one between Bayer and Monsanto did not get off to a great start. Just months after Bayer bought Monsanto in a $63 billion deal, its shares were battered after a Northern California jury asked it to pay more than $2 billion to a couple who said they developed cancer after using the company’s glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup, part of the Monsanto portfolio. Though a court later reduced the penalty to $86.7 million, the damage had been done, with Bayer losing almost 30 per cent market capitalisation since the merger. The allegations around Roundup have triggered thousands of cases against Bayer across the world, mainly in the US.

In India, the world’s fourth-largest producer of agrochemicals, things have been calm. The merger, in fact, is progressing smoothly, with Bayer and Monsanto managements expecting substantial savings from synergy and a big impact in the $4 billion (₹28,000 crore) Indian agrochemical market (where the top five-six players account for majority market share) that the merged entity — with 14-15 per cent market share of the organised crop protection market — hopes to dominate. The market is