Germany's Bayer AG is to buy Aventis CropScience from owners French-based Aventis and German-based Schering.
The $16.5 billion purchase, including debt, is Bayer's largest deal in 138 years.
Aventis owns 76 per cent of ACS, and Schering 24 per cent. Ownership is likely to change during the first quarter of next year.
Bayer
plans to integrate ACS with its own Crop Protection Business Group, creating a new company to be known as Bayer Crop Science.
Bayer's New Zealand subsidiary, Bayer New Zealand, supplies a variety of products, including crop protection and animal health products, pharmaceuticals, plastics and speciality chemicals.
Bayer New Zealand's business manager of crop protection, Phil McSweeney, said the acquisition could mean expansion in the crop division's products and services.
Worldwide, Crop Protection Business Group and ACS were expected to have joint sales of up to $15.8 billion in 2001.
