St. Louis, Missouri
August 13, 2002
As previously
announced, at the close of business today Pharmacia Corporation
will distribute its 84-percent stake in
Monsanto Company to
Pharmacia shareowners via a special stock dividend. This
distribution will complete Pharmacia's spinoff of Monsanto and
establish Monsanto as a 100-percent publicly traded company.
In marking the occasion, Monsanto
President and Chief Executive Officer Hendrik A. Verfaillie said
Monsanto's focus would remain on its long-term commitment to
agriculture and the strategy it has built around its customer
base. "Today marks an important milestone, affirming Monsanto's
place as a company solely dedicated to agriculture," said
Verfaillie.
"However, this is just one
milestone in a larger evolution. We've assembled a company
around our integrated solutions strategy, and we believe that
our strategy uniquely positions us as a leader in the
agricultural industry." Monsanto's customer-driven integrated
solutions strategy includes seeds, biotechnology traits and
agricultural chemistry. The company enhances its strengths in
these three individual elements by combining them to provide
integrated solutions for farm productivity and food quality,
Verfaillie said.
"In the past few years, commodity
agriculture has been besieged by challenges ranging from
depressed prices to extraordinary weather," said Verfaillie.
"Our intention is to focus our efforts on solutions that will
improve farmers' bottom-line productivity. This is something we
see as a timeless, underlying benefit that would be recognized
in any market condition." In addition to Monsanto's business
commitment to farmers, Verfaillie also has committed the company
to the New Monsanto Pledge, a code of conduct for doing
business. The Pledge includes five areas of commitment:
delivering benefits to farmers and the environment; dialogue
with interested parties; transparency with information and
regulation; respect for other points of view; and sharing of
technology.
In connection with the spinoff of
Monsanto from Pharmacia, Verfaillie also announced that
Christopher J. Coughlin, of Morristown, New Jersey, will resign
from the Monsanto board of directors effective today. Coughlin,
50, is executive vice president and chief financial officer of
Pharmacia and has been a member of the Monsanto board since
March 2000. "We thank Chris for his service and dedication to
Monsanto shareowners during the past two years on our board,"
said Verfaillie.
This change to the Monsanto board
brings the number of directors to nine. Verfaillie said Monsanto
will look to add an independent director to the Monsanto board
in the future.
Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON)
is a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and
agricultural products that improve farm productivity and food
quality.
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