BASF CEO says not parting with crop protection division
FRANKFURT, July 27 (Reuters) - BASF will not put its Agricultural Solutions unit up for sale as part of an ongoing consolidation wave in the crop protection and seeds industry, the chemical group's chief executive said on Wednesday.
"I think we've made it quite clear that our crop protection business is not for sale," CEO Kurt Bock told journalists in a conference call after the release of quarterly earnings, when asked whether BASF might cede control over the business in part or in its entirety.
"It's not only in crop protection, we also do see it in other businesses that time and again we're being mentioned as the natural negotiation partner. It does make us wonder sometimes," he added.
Bloomberg reported two weeks ago that seed company Monsanto Co, which has rejected Bayer's buyout offers, talked to BASF to explore various transactions including the acquisition of BASF's agriculture-solutions unit against newly issued shares in Monsanto.
BASF's earlier reported adjusted operating profit dropped 16 percent in the second quarter, hurt by a slump in oil and gas unit and by weak demand for its agricultural pesticides.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger)
