Research Triangle Park, North
Carolina
December 10, 2002
Bayer CropScience
has purchased controlling interest of Pau Seeds, Inc. as part of
an effort to expand its research presence in the U.S. corn seed
marketplace.
With the acquisition of Pau Seeds,
Bayer CropScience will obtain four active breeding programs and
three research stations. Pau Seed’s Boone, Iowa, headquarters
facility includes two breeding programs and additional breeding
programs are under way at research facilities in Olivia,
Minnesota, and Brookston, Indiana. The company has 15 employees.
“The acquisition of Pau Seeds
provides us an opportunity to partner Pau’s solid breeding
program with our existing trait technology aimed at
commercializing lines for the U.S. market,” said Scott Johnson,
general manager of the company’s BioScience unit for corn/
soybean/rice in North America. “Until this point, Pau has been
focused on providing germplasm for the European market.”
Within the US, some of Pau’s lines
of seed are currently commercially available through Foundation
Seed Companies. Bayer has held a minority stake in the company
since 1999.
Under the agreement, French-based
seed company Euralis Semences SA
will retain a minority stake in the company. Euralis Semences SA
remains a licensee of the
Pau Seeds germplasm for its development in the Euralis
European markets.
Bayer CropScience researches,
develops, manufactures and sells a broad range of innovative
crop science products for the crop protection, biotechnology and
seed markets; the turf and ornamental and professional pest
management markets; and the consumer lawn and garden markets.
Bayer CropScience, with worldwide headquarters in Monheim,
Germany, is a separate legal entity within the worldwide Bayer
Group.
Bayer is an international,
research-based group with core businesses in health care, crop
science, polymers and specialty chemicals. It employs some
117,000 people throughout the world. In 2002 Bayer had sales of
EUR 30.3 billion and net income of EUR 2.6 billion. The Bayer
Group stock is a component of the DAX and is listed on the New
York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: BAY).
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