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Speaker 1: Well, now is time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief,

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Speaker 1: exploring legal issues in the news, and today Bloomberg Lajos

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Speaker 1: during Grosso and Michael Best discussed the reasons for a

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Speaker 1: delay and Buyer's plan sixties six billion dollar purchase of

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Speaker 1: mont Santo. You speak with Jennifer Rheas, senior litigation analysts

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Speaker 1: for Bloomberg Intelligence. Jen, what are the concerns with a

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Speaker 1: merger like this in the midst of an unprecedented wave

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Speaker 1: of consolidation in the agro chemicals industry. Well, I mean

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Speaker 1: you just said it. That's the first thing. You have

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Speaker 1: a lot of consolidation in the industry, and of course

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Speaker 1: this is more and both in the US and and EU,

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Speaker 1: there are concerns about farmers, which are the primary customers

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Speaker 1: of all of these companies down DuPont that just merged

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Speaker 1: out Buyer mont Santo, as well as KEM China and

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Speaker 1: cent Genta. So you know what the EU is concerned

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Speaker 1: about are some overlaps between these two companies, Buyer and

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Speaker 1: mont Santo in a couple different kinds of pesticides UM,

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Speaker 1: as well as in some seats UM. As well as

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Speaker 1: the possibility that this combined company could bundle these products,

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Speaker 1: both of which are sold to farmers, and there could

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Speaker 1: be some harm that could come out of that ability.

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Speaker 1: So Jen, what is buyer going to do with this

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Speaker 1: extra time, as it were, this delay in the takeover?

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Speaker 1: You know, I suspect and this is obviously just speculation

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Speaker 1: that what is happening is that they are working now

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Speaker 1: on negotiating remedies that they will have to agree to

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Speaker 1: with the EU in order to be able to close

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Speaker 1: their deal, and that they are they've decided that it's

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Speaker 1: worth it to them to have a little extra time

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Speaker 1: to try to make some arguments to limit what the

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Speaker 1: European regulators require them to sell off. And it's clear

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Speaker 1: they're going to have to sell assets, and they may

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Speaker 1: be simply trying to limit what it is they have

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Speaker 1: to sell there. And while they're discussing remedies with the regulators,

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Speaker 1: they're also holding talks with potential acquirers about some assets

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Speaker 1: that they may need to divest. It doesn't seem pretty

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Speaker 1: certain that the EU is going to require some substantial divestments.

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Speaker 1: I think so absolutely. You know, when they go into

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Speaker 1: a phase two and then in particular, we know that

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Speaker 1: some assets were offered up early on during the Phase

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Speaker 1: one by buyer in in the European Commission rejected that package.

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Speaker 1: So we do know that they expect investitures and I

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Speaker 1: think it will be extensive. And they did require down

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Speaker 1: and du Pont to divest assets um not seeds, but

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Speaker 1: several assets in the pesticide area, as well as Keim

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Speaker 1: China and Cententa to divest some chemicals in order to close.

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Speaker 1: And I think we should expect that plus seeds and

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Speaker 1: maybe more. Here as Jennifer Ree, a senior litigation analyst

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Speaker 1: for Bloomberg Intelligence, speaking with Bloomberg LA host Jun Grosso

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Speaker 1: and Michael Best. You can listen to Bloomberg Law weekdays

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Speaker 1: at one pm Wall Street Time here on Bloomberg Radio,

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Speaker 1: and that is this morning's Bloomberg Law bree. If you

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Speaker 1: can find more legal news at Bloomberg Law dot com

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Speaker 1: and Bloomberg BNA dot com. Attorneys will find exceptional legal

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Speaker 1: research and business development tools there as well. Visit Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Law dot com and Bloomberg na dot com for more

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Speaker 1: information