BASF to Buy

Sarla Buch
13 Oct, 2017
New York City

BASF agreed to acquire seed and herbicide businesses from Bayer for

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt – BASF agreed to acquire seed and herbicide businesses from Bayer for €5.9 billion. GKN tumbled on profit warnings and legal claims costs. Faurecia said sales in the third-quarter soared 10%. Man Group said assets under management jumped 8%.[/R]


In London trading, FTSE 100 index slid 5.52 to 7,551.03 and in Frankfurt the DAX index edged up 10.47 to 12,993.36.

In Paris, CAC 40 index edged down 3.63 to 5,357.27.

For the week, FTSE 100 index gained 0.4%, the DAX index rose 0.3% and the CAC 40 index slid 0.1%.

BASF SE slid 0.2% to €89.12 after Germany-based chemicals producer agreed to acquire seed and herbicide businesses from German conglomerate Bayer AG for €5.9 billion or $6.98 billion in cash.

The company is also negotiating with regulators for the approval of the planned $57 billion acquisition of the U.S.-based seed maker Monsanto Co.

GKN Plc tumbled 10.2% to 316.70 after the engineering equipment maker warned that its full-year pretax profits may be “slightly” higher than last year’s profit mainly driven by its U.S. aerospace unit and costs related to two legal claims of about £40 million or $52.9 million.

Faurecia SA dropped 2.2% to €60.60 after France-based automobile equipment supplier reported group sales in the third-quarter ending in September soared 10% from a year ago to €3.8 billion.

Sales in the Europe jumped 8.7% to €1.8 billion and sales in Asia region surged 25.1% to €700 million but sales in the North America fell 0.1% to €986.4 million.

Man Group Plc jumped 3.3% to 186 pence after the U.K.-based hedge fund manager said as of September 30, assets under management in third quarter jumped 7.9% to $103.5 billion from $95.9 billion as of June 30.

In the quarter, net inflows of $2.8 billion were driven by emerging market debt strategies.

Provident Financial Plc surged 13.8% to 898 pence after the U.K.-based subprime lender said progress in business recovery is “as per the plan” but exceptional loss for the Consumer Credit Division is in the range of £80 million to £120 million.

However, the lender said home credit receivables in the quarter dropped 33% to £316.3 million from £471.7 million in June 2017 and slumped from £489.2 million in a year ago period.