Solvay completes acquisition of Bayer’s global seed coatings business

Brussels & Monheim, July 1, 2021 - Today Solvay and Bayer announced the successful closing of Solvay's previously announced acquisition of Bayer’s global Coatings Business, with facilities in Méréville, France, and tolling operations in the U.S. and Brazil. The business is recognized globally for seed coating and seed enhancement products such as Peridiam, fluency powders, Certop, Pro-Ized Pigment, and Talkum, and its research and development capabilities for on-seed formulations. The Méréville facility's entire product portfolio, R&D projects and the business line’s international tolling operations are now fully transferred to Solvay.

"This acquisition continues Solvay's strategy to strengthen our range of sustainable, bio-based solutions for agricultural customers, fully aligned to our G.R.O.W. strategy," commented Michael Radossich, president of Solvay's Novecare business unit. "We are proud to welcome the legacy Bayer SeedGrowth coatings team to our Solvay agricultural specialties family."

The Méréville facility has 36 permanent employees and conducts industry-leading research and development of application technologies for seeds, such as seed coating and filming processes, representing around 20% of the site’s activity, while the remaining 80% is dedicated to research and formulation of aqueous solutions called film-coaters. The film coaters developed at the Méréville site are exported and used in 35 countries.

Seed coatings can best be understood as the "glue" that allows any seed treatment product to bind to the actual seed. In combination, the active ingredient that is coated on the seed helps to protect seeds against insects and diseases that could prevent the seed from germinating or growing. Seed treatments are especially important for field crop seeds such as wheat, rapeseed, maize, sunflower, rice and soya, and vegetable seeds such as beetroot.

"For Bayer, the choice of Solvay as the owner of this business was a strategic one," said Ralf Glaubitz, Head of Asset Management of Bayer‘s global SeedGrowth Business. "The divestment allows us to reinvest in other priority areas within our crop science division, while enabling Solvay to bring the long-term potential of the global seed coatings business to fruition."

Solvay will remain a strategic partner for Bayer's seed activities thanks to exclusive supplier status for film-coating to be used for Bayer SeedGrowth products on Bayer Seeds for a period of at least five years.

Bayer and Solvay are committed to a smooth transition to ensure that customers will have uninterrupted access to the seed coating and seed enhancement products in the countries where they are currently sold.

About Bayer
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. Its products and services are designed to help people and planet thrive by supporting efforts to master the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. Bayer is committed to drive sustainable development and generate a positive impact with its businesses. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. The Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2020, the Group employed around 100,000 people and had sales of 41.4 billion euros. R&D expenses before special items amounted to 4.9 billion euros. For more information, go to www.bayer.com.

About Solvay 
Solvay is a science company whose technologies bring benefits to many aspects of daily life. With more than 23,000 employees in 64 countries, Solvay bonds people, ideas and elements to reinvent progress. The Group seeks to create sustainable shared value for all, notably through its Solvay One Planet plan crafted around three pillars: protecting the climate, preserving resources and fostering better life. The Group’s innovative solutions contribute to safer, cleaner, and more sustainable products found in homes, food and consumer goods, planes, cars, batteries, smart devices, health care applications, water and air purification systems. Founded in 1863, Solvay today ranks among the world’s top three companies for the vast majority of its activities and delivered net sales of €9 billion in 2020. Solvay is listed on Euronext Brussels (SOLB) and Paris and in the United States, where its shares (SOLVY) are traded through a Level I ADR program. Learn more at www.solvay.com. 
 

Forward-Looking Statements 
This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer’s public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.