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Biotech / Medical : Monsanto Co. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jopawa who wrote (834)	1/5/1999 6:12:00 PM
From: jopawa	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2539

Tuesday January 5, 2:31 pm Eastern Time Monsanto sale of unit seen to clear Delta deal By Rene Pastor ORLANDO, Fla, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Monsanto's (NYSE:MTC - news) decision to sell Stoneville Pedigreed Seed Co. should banish anti-trust concerns in the cottonseed market over its purchase last year of Delta and Pineland Co., industry analysts said Tuesday. Robert Fraley, co-president of the Agriculture Sector of Monsanto, said Monday at the annual Beltwide Cotton conference here that the company ''will initiate an auction process for the sale of Stoneville'' in early 1999. ''This is a fairly dramatic development for Monsanto to obtain anti-trust approval from Justice for the Delta Pineland deal,'' an investment banker in New York told Reuters. ''The government most assuredly would not have allowed the Delta and Pineland deal to proceed unless Stoneville were sold,'' a cotton broker said. Monsanto officials attending the conference declined comment on the market speculation that the sale of Stoneville was linked to the Delta and Pineland deal. Cotton industry analysts estimate Delta controls about 50-55 percent of the cottonseed market in the U.S. while Monsanto, through Stoneville, has around 10-15 percent of the market. One analyst said: ''I've heard that their combined share may even be as high as 80 percent of the cottonseed market.'' Delta and Pineland is the largest cottonseed firm in the U.S. ''One or the other had to be sold,'' a cotton merchant from the U.S. Southwest said. ''This announcement now clears the path for Justice approval.'' A cotton merchant added: ''It would be difficult for one company to own both. A lot of people know that would raise anti- trust concerns with (the) Justice (Department).'' Analysts said Fraley's announcement that Stoneville ''will remain competitive in the seed and biotech sectors under its new parent'' helped reassure the market the subsidiary should remain viable on its own. Monsanto officials did not say how much they hope to earn from the sale of the subsidiary. Monsanto's acquisition of Delta and Pineland is still pending final government approval. ''I guess they're still trying to work out final arrangements with Justice on Delta,'' one analyst said. Delta and Pineland has three units under its wing. They are Deltapine Seed, SureGrow and Paymaster.