St. Louis, Missouri
October 15, 2007
Monsanto Company (NYSE:
MON) today announced it has increased its investment in
Mendel Biotechnology, Inc.,
one of the company's key collaborators on agriculture
technologies.
As part of today's announcement, Mendel noted that the increased
investment will be used to support the growth of Mendel's new
BioEnergy seeds and feedstock business to serve the cellulosic
biofuels industry, as well as the further development of its
core technology platforms. Mendel will also use a portion of the
proceeds to repurchase shares from existing share and
option-holders, thereby restructuring the shareholder base of
the company and slightly increasing Monsanto's share in the
company. Additional financial details were not disclosed.
Monsanto and Mendel have worked together to support the
discovery and development of new technologies for agriculture
since 1997. To date, the two companies have collaborated to
leverage several technologies developed by Mendel in Monsanto's
product pipeline, including higher-yielding soybeans that create
incremental yield benefits over conventional soybeans.
"Mendel has been an important collaborator for us, and their
research continues to play an important role in the development
of new products for the farm," said Steve Padgette, Ph.D., Vice
President of Biotechnology at Monsanto and a member of the board
of directors at Mendel. "We're excited to increase our funding
and continue working with Mendel, especially as they venture
into the cellulosic biofuels arena."
"Today, our research in both breeding and biotechnology is
focused on helping farmers get more yield out of a single seed,
enabling them to do more with less," Padgette said. "We're
encouraged by Mendel's development of technologies that serve
the cellulosic biofuels industry. We'll closely monitor
development of this technology and how it could be applied to
support global bioenergy needs."
Monsanto Company is a leading global provider of
technology-based solutions and agricultural products that
improve farm productivity and food quality.
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