MOSCOW (MRC) -- DuPont Co. got a boost from U.S. farmers as it closes in on the historic USD75 billion merger with Dow Chemical Co. next month, reported Bloomberg.
Seed sales climbed in the second quarter as DuPont introduced new varieties of soybeans in North America, while pesticide revenue jumped on demand for new fungicides and insecticides, the company said in a statement Tuesday.
DuPont is benefiting as North American farmers sow a record soybean crop after enduring years of low corn prices. U.S. growers are on course to increase soybean acreage 7 percent this year, according to the Department of Agriculture. Seed gains drove an 11 percent increase in farm-related earnings, accounting for more than half of total profit at DuPont.
Chief Executive Officer Ed Breen is poised to close the merger of equals with Dow next month after prior delays in gaining antitrust clearances pushed back the original completion date from December 2016. Breen struck the deal in December 2015, the month after taking the helm at Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont.
"We are down to literally the last yards here to punch the ball into the end zone," Breen said on an earnings conference call. "We will close the merger in August."
The companies are awaiting final antitrust approvals from the European Commission and Brazil, Breen said.
Breen, who is also DuPont’s chairman, will be CEO of the merged company, to be called DowDuPont Inc. Dow’s chairman and CEO, Andrew Liveris, will be chairman.
The companies have won antitrust approvals from every major jurisdiction where they operate by promising a series of divestitures. DuPont is selling some pesticide assets to FMC Corp., while Dow will unload some corn-seed assets in Brazil to a Chinese investment fund. The asset buyers still need to be approved by some regulators before the deal can close.
Dow and DuPont are planning to split the merged company into three within 18 months of closing, with the first spinoff set to be a materials-science company that will retain the Dow name.
The other two post-split companies will focus on agriculture and specialty products. The companies have said DowDuPont will reconsider which businesses will constitute each spinoff after investors including Third Point raised concerns that proposed materials-science and specialty companies aren’t sufficiently focused.
DuPont is an American chemical company that was founded in July, 1802. The company manufactures a wide range of chemical products, leading extensive innovative research in this field. The company is the inventor of many unique plastics and other materials, including neoprene, nylon, Teflon, Kevlar, Mylar, Tyvek, etc. DuPont was the developer and main producer of Freon used in the production of refrigeration equipment.
The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene, polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
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