Chapter 1422: Global Seed Industry Ruler

After taking over the shares of the Andrés family, Polaris Capital now owns 90.3% of ADM.

With this shareholding ratio, there is no room for other minority shareholders to resist.

They all accepted the offer from Polaris Capital.

In just two days, the remaining 9.7% of the large equity was all acquired, and Polaris Capital completed its 100% ownership of ADM.

In total, it cost 1.58425 billion US dollars.

Just such a company with total assets of 4.579 billion US dollars and net assets of 2.005 billion US dollars, an international bulk trading giant, was captured.

After the acquisition was completed, Xia Yu began to solve other hidden dangers and also fulfilled the agreement in passing.

First, the FBI pinned the charges on an employee, and Darnell Andrews was exonerated. After the procedure was completed, he was sentenced to a small fine at most.

Of course, the profits from manipulating grain prices went into ADM's pockets, so in the end, ADM would still be fined, but the fine would definitely be kept to a minimum.

More importantly, if it is fined this time, all previous charges will be dropped. For ADM, this is a good thing as it will eliminate a huge potential problem, so that it will not be targeted by consortia of the same size in the future.

As for the Ministry of Agriculture and the General Administration of Customs, they have also completed comprehensive inspections of all 200,000 tons of imported Brazilian soybeans and have not found any problems, so they have been approved for entry.

...

'Chairman, this is the latest work report submitted by Taikoo Agriculture Group.'

In Kowloon, Hong Kong, Fok Kin-ning entered Xia Yu's office and took the report submitted by the subordinates.

Xia Yu took it and read it carefully, then picked up a pen and wrote on it for a few minutes.

Then he pushed it back to Fok Kin-ning, smiling faintly and saying, 'Kin-ning, you follow my instructions and ask Taikoo Agriculture Group to make some adjustments.'

'The US has already acquired ADM, and strategic cooperation can be reached with them. ADM cannot help much with rice, but they are much stronger than Swire Agriculture in oil crops, corn, wheat and other crops. After reaching cooperation, we can avoid many detours.'

'Now Swire Agriculture can take a bigger step and be more courageous.'

Fok Kin-ning took the material, glanced at it, and nodded in response, saying, 'I understand. I will convey your meaning.'

Xia Yu nodded slightly, and suddenly asked, 'By the way, where are you in the collection of information on the global seed industry?'

'Chairman, the information from each region has already been submitted, and the Secretariat is still refining and consolidating it. We will definitely be able to present it tomorrow.'

Fok Kin-ning had already been briefed before coming, so he answered smoothly.

'Good, let's talk about it tomorrow.'

...

The following day, the weather was poor, with Hong Kong shrouded in heavy rain.

Xia Yu simply did not go out, and asked someone to deliver the consolidated data to his home.

In between entertaining his baby, he finished reading the data.

In fact, Swire Pacific Agriculture and ADM not only grow and sell agricultural and sideline products, they also have seed breeding departments.

After all, these two companies have been in these fields for 70 to 80 years or even a century, and as long as the operators are not crazy, they will improve the layout of the industrial chain.

But!

Swire Agri and ADM are not professional seed companies after all. The two companies may be top in a certain variety, but they cannot be top in the breeding and improvement of seeds for all crops.

Therefore, they can only buy seeds from the top seed companies in the world, so as to ensure sufficient competitiveness.

Currently,

The world's number one seed company is Pioneer Seeds, which was founded in 1926 by Henry Walling, the father of American maize hybridisation.

After 60 years of development, Pioneer Seeds has become the world's largest developer and seller of hybrid maize seeds. Its maize seeds are grown on nearly 300 million mu of land worldwide, accounting for 22% of the global maize acreage. In the global seed market, Pioneer Seeds' hybrid maize seeds account for 43% of the market.

In addition to corn seeds, Pioneer also sells a large number of soybeans, sorghum, sunflower, and alfalfa seeds. Soybean seeds account for a quarter of the US market, and sorghum seeds account for one sixth.

Xia Yu did know about this company. Before entering the new millennium, it was acquired by the DuPont Consortium for 7.7 billion US dollars and merged into DuPont, causing a huge sensation at the time.

In second place was the infamous Monsanto Company, which focuses on the research and development of genetically modified seeds and is the world leader in seed genetic modification technology.

Monsanto's seed business mainly focuses on cotton, soybean and corn seeds, and is a major competitor to Pioneer in the US market.

In later years, Monsanto was acquired by the German company Bayer for a staggering $63 billion, an absolutely astronomical price!

In third place in the world is the French seed company Limagrain, which was founded in 1942 and is mainly engaged in the field of vegetable seeds. It is currently the world's number one vegetable seed company.

In fourth place in the world is the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, which is also very strong in the seed sector and whose main business is also vegetable seeds.

The fifth largest company in the world is Mexico's largest seed company, Seminis. This company's main seed business is melons, fruits and vegetables, of which vegetable seeds account for one-fifth of the world market.

In addition to these companies,

information has been collected on other internationally renowned seed companies such as Astra in Sweden, ICI in the UK, Royal Van De Haaf Group in the Netherlands, Merken Gen in the US, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus Company in France, Danish Seed Company, Great Lakes Seed Company, Bunge, Bayer in West Germany, Delta Seed Company in the US, etc.

As for later seed giants such as Syngenta, Eveda, Dow Chemical and BASF, they were actually all formed through mergers and acquisitions of the above companies.

The global seed market, like the bulk commodity trading market, is still in a state of benign competition and development, and has not yet entered the stage of malicious mergers and acquisitions.

As a result, there are still many players in the global seed market, and there is still plenty of room for acquisition options.

However!

In reality, if you want to create a global seed overlord and completely strengthen the bulk crop trade industry chain, then the options are really not that many.

Pioneer Seeds needs no introduction. This world number one seed company has a very big name, but last year's seed sales were less than 700 million US dollars!

With Xia Yu's strength, it would be a breeze to take it over.

Next, Monsanto, the overlord of genetic modification technology, is even more unmissable. This company's turnover in the seed sector last year was only 577 million US dollars.

Genetically modified agricultural technology is the mainstream trend of the future of American agriculture, and there is no escaping it. To hold it is to hold the artery of the industry's development.

More importantly, it is better to let Monsanto wreak havoc on the mainland when it is in someone else's hands than to let it wreak havoc on other countries and avoid harming the mainland.

As long as Pioneer and Monsanto are taken over, they will occupy more than half of the world market in the two fields of soybeans and corn, and will sit firmly in the dominant position.

They will also be able to fully enter the ranks of the industry leaders in the seeds of crops such as cotton, wheat, sorghum, sunflower, and oilseed.

Then there is the American Delta Seed Company, the world's largest cotton seed company, which must also be acquired. Combining the strength of the three companies, the cotton seed market will also be able to occupy more than half of the world.

Finally, Xia Yu's target is the French Limagrain Company and the Mexican Seminis Seed Company.

These two are giants in vegetable and fruit seeds, one is the world's number one and the other is the world's third. If they can both be taken over and merged together, then they will also firmly occupy the dominant position in the field of vegetable and fruit seeds, far surpassing the second-placed Swiss Novartis.

It's not that Xia Yu doesn't think highly of Swiss Novartis, but it is unlikely that this company will be acquired, even if only the seed business is acquired.

After all, Novartis is a global pharmaceutical giant, and the seed business is just a small part of it. Novartis is also controlled by a veteran European consortium and is one of the flagship companies in the European pharmaceutical sector. How could it be so easy to acquire?

Therefore, Xia Yu could only settle for the second best option, the Mexican company Seminis.

However, this was also good, as Limagrain and Seminis were located on two different continents, with little overlap in their business areas. If they could merge, the complementary effect would be even better.

If these five companies can be acquired, and the seed businesses of ADM and Swire Agriculture Group can also be spun off and merged in, then an absolute global seed overlord with no weak links can be created.

Without hesitation, the very generous Xia Yu immediately gave instructions for the Polaris Consortium and the Guangming Consortium to act separately.

The Polaris Consortium was responsible for acquiring Pioneer Seed Company, Monsanto Company and Delta Seed Company, all of which were based in the United States. With the Polaris Consortium's power, the acquisitions were even simpler and faster.

The Bright Consortium, on the other hand, was responsible for acquiring the French company Limagrain and the Mexican company Seminis.

The acquisitions went very smoothly, as Xia Yu had expected.

In the absence of any other competitors, and with money as the driving force, all five seed companies were acquired within a month.

The total cost was 3.27 billion US dollars.

After the five companies were acquired, Swire Agri and ADM also divested their seed businesses and merged directly to form a seed company.

Xia Yu named it Earth Agriculture Group.

Once the news was announced, the global agricultural market was shaken, and all the major seed companies were scared to death.

The idea of a merger came to the minds of the owners of almost every seed company, because with their current strength, they could not compete head-on with Earth Agriculture Group.

It can be predicted that in the next few years, the global seed sector will undergo huge changes.

However, Xia Yu has a head start. Even if these seed companies merge with each other, it is unlikely that they will merge to form a giant of the same size. It is very likely that there will be one superpower and many strong players.

But the rest will be handled by his shrewd subordinates. He is only responsible for the top-level strategy...