FMC Corporation, an American chemical manufacturing company, said it has reached an agreement with DuPont to acquire a portion of its crop protection business for $1.2 billion.

With this acquisition, FMC Agricultural Solutions will become the fifth largest crop protection chemical company in the world by revenue, with estimated annual revenue of $3.8 billion. 

As part of the deal, DuPont will also acquire FMC Health and Nutrition. The move comes in line with Dupont's strategy to divest its unit to comply with the European Commission ruling related to its merger with The Dow Chemical Company.

According to FMC Corporation, the acquired portion of DuPont's crop protection business includes an industry-leading selective insecticide portfolio consisting of Rynaxypyr, Cyazypyr and Indoxacarb.

The first two of these products have full patent protection over their respective active ingredients, and FMC expects these products will generate over $1 billion in 2017 revenue.

These selective insecticides are highly complementary to FMC's existing broad spectrum insecticide portfolio.  

The acquired portfolio also includes DuPont's global cereal broadleaf herbicides, consisting of nine active ingredients and multiple formulated products.

This herbicide portfolio comes with strong, recognized brands and DuPont's proprietary PrecisionPac technology. These products bring significant diversification to FMC's crop exposure in herbicides, as well as increasing the balance of pre-emergent and post-emergent applications in its portfolio.

FMC will acquire DuPont's global chewing pest insecticide portfolio, its global cereal broadleaf herbicides, and a substantial portion of its global crop protection R&D capabilities.

On the deal, Pierre Brondeau, the FMC president, CEO and chairman, said: "This is a significant step forward for FMC, and for our Agricultural Solutions business in particular."

"The combination of market-leading products from DuPont's crop protection portfolio and its world-class R&D capabilities will transform our Agricultural Solutions business into a tier-one ag technology company," he stated.

According to him, the geographic spread of the revenue in this portfolio will result in a significant increase in FMC's presence in Asia and Europe.

Following the acquisition, FMC's crop protection revenue will be almost equally spread across all four major regions – North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

The underlying intellectual property related to the acquired products, including patents, registrations and data packages, will be transferred to FMC, it stated.

FMC will acquire a global manufacturing network to fully support these products, including four active ingredient manufacturing facilities and 10 regional formulation plants.

The acquisition will bring DuPont's world-class discovery and development organization, including its Delaware (US) crop protection research headquarters, 14 regional development labs and related regulatory capabilities.-TradeArabia News Service