Henderson calls for investor vote on Bayer's takeover of Monsanto
Staff Writer | July 19, 2016
Henderson Global Investors, a minority investor in Bayer, has demanded a vote on the firm's $64 billion-plus proposed takeover of Monsanto.Article continues below
Henderson said the takeover threatens the long-term strength of the German chemicals group.
Asim Rahman, European equities fund manager at Henderson, one of Bayer's 20 largest investors with a 0.7 percent stake, said the bid for the U.S. seeds company represented "a major departure from a strategy of focus and integration of existing acquisitions" that Bayer had consistently communicated to the market for a number of years.
Bayer announced a sweetened $125-a-share offer for Monsanto, the largest all-cash takeover bid on record, on July 14 in an effort to entice its reluctant management to give the German company full access to its books.
Global agrochemical firms have been weighing a string of big-ticket mergers with rivals in recent months to partly offset a sharp drop in commodities prices that has hit the incomes of some of their biggest agricultural customers.
In a letter to the company dated June 7, Henderson's Rahman also called for a shareholder vote on the deal to restore investor trust and ensure support for Bayer's future strategic direction, which he hoped could minimize a likely increased conglomerate discount on its share price relative to peers.
"We cannot accept the Board's decision to deny shareholders any opportunity to vote on it... Technically the transaction does not require shareholder approval, but an endorsement by shareholders would provide an opportunity to repair market trust in the investment case," he said. ■ What to read next
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