Novartis Agribusiness announced sale of its worldwide Flint fungicide business to Bayer Crop Protection, a subsidiary of Bayer AG.
Sale price was placed at $760 million and included production facilities in Muttenz, SZ, as well as all intellectual property rights, trademarks and registrations.
Flint is a second-generation strobilurin fungicide with a broad-spectrum of applications. It is currently marketed in Switzerland, the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Norway, Ireland, Belgium, and South Africa.
The proposed merger of Novartis and Zeneca Agrochemicals to form Syngenta has been approved by European anti-trust authorities, but is still subject to final approval from the Federal Trade Commission.
Sale of the Flint line addressed an area of concern voiced by the European Commission and the FTC in their consideration of the proposed merger.