Report: Seed Company Consolidation Could Prompt BASF To Enter Market

The world's largest chemical company is considering getting into the crop seed business amid a wave of consolidation in both industries.

Reuters, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that BASF could attempt to buy seed operations divested by its rivals in their attempts to appease antitrust regulators.

Fellow German chemical company Bayer, for example, plans to sell its LibertyLink brand of seed traits in order to gain approval for its pending merger with U.S. agribusiness giant Monsanto.

BASF is among the world's top producers of crop chemicals but previously determined that adding seeds to its portfolio would not make sense.

But consolidation among chemical and seed companies — such as Bayer and Monsanto, Syngenta and ChemChina and Dow and DuPont — could bring the prices of seed operations down. Regulators could also favor a new entrant into the seed business in hopes of bolstering competition.

"There are assets that will come to market for antitrust reasons and they might come at prices that are different from those that we have seen in the past," Martin Brudermueller, BASF's deputy chief executive, said during a press conference. "That's why we will look into it and see whether it makes sense for us."

Analysts previously predicted that Syngenta would also be a candidate to acquire assets divested in the Bayer-Monsanto merger.