While many of the agrichemical giants that dominate the turf market have made news in recent years for mergers, two other companies that service the golf industry are making headlines for a more unique relationship.
Philadelphia-based FMC Corp. and DuPont (E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co.) of Wilmington, Delaware, have reached a deal April 3 in which each will trade or sell parts of its respective company to the other.Under the deal, FMC will buy part of DuPont's crop protection division that includes a line largely comprised of chewing insecticides and cereal broadleaf herbicides that generated $1.4 billion in revenue in 2016. The deal also includes DuPont's 470-acre research facility in Delaware. In return, DuPont will acquire all of FMC's health and nutrition line of drug additives, which had sales of $700 million last year.
As part of the deal, FMC will pay DuPont $1.6 billion to compensate for the difference in value of the respective assets.
The transaction, which is expected to clear regulatory review late this year, will satisfy DuPont's commitments to the European Commission in connection with its proposed $130 billion merger with Dow Chemical announced in 2015. The Dow merger was expected to close in the first half of this year, but has been delayed likely until the third quarter, marking the third delay in the transaction's closing.
According to DuPont, the new company that will emerge from the Dow merger will retain a presence in insecticides and herbicides in its agriculture division after the transaction is complete.
The deal will make FMC Agricultural Solutions the fifth largest crop protection chemical company in the world by revenue, with estimated annual revenue of approximately $3.8 billion.