FRANKFURT: German drugs and crop chemicals group Bayer has offered to buy US seeds company Monsanto for $62 billion in cash, defying criticism from some of its own shareholders in a bid to grab the top spot in a fast-consolidating farm supplies industry.

The unsolicited proposal, which includes debt, would be the largest foreign takeover by a German company if accepted.

The move would eclipse a planned combination of Dow Chemical and DuPont’s agriculture units and comes just three weeks after Werner Baumann took over as Bayer CEO. It was condemned by a major Bayer shareholder as “arrogant empire-building” when news of the proposal emerged last week.

Giving details for the first time, Bayer said on Monday it would offer $122 per share, a 37 percent premium to Monsanto’s stock price before rumours of a bid surfaced.

“We fully expect a positive answer of the Monsanto board of directors,” Baumann told reporters on a conference call, describing criticism from some investors as “an uneducated reaction in the media” when deal terms were not yet known, and driven by an element of surprise.

Monsanto, which said last week it had a received an approach from Bayer but gave no details, has yet to comment on the offer.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2016