The Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) is a U.S.-based multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation. It is the world's leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed as "Roundup". Monsanto is also the leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed; it provides the technology in 90% of the genetically engineered seeds used in the US market. It is headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri.
Agracetus, owned by Monsanto, exclusively produces Roundup Ready soybean seed for the commercial market. In 2005, it finalized purchase of Seminis Inc, making it the world's largest conventional seed company.
Monsanto's development and marketing of genetically engineered seed and bovine growth hormone, as well as its aggressive litigation, political lobbying practices, seed commercialization practices and "strong-arming" of the seed industry have made the company controversial around the world and a primary target of the alter-globalization movement and environmental activists. As a result of its business strategies and licensing agreements, Monsanto came under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department in 2009.
Monsanto Company (Monsanto), incorporated on February 9, 2000, along with its subsidiaries, is a provider of agricultural products for farmers. The Company's seeds, biotechnology trait products, and herbicides provide farmers with solutions that improve productivity, reduce the costs of farming, and produce better foods for consumers and better feed for animals. It manages business in two segments: Seeds and Genomics, and Agricultural Productivity. In April 2010, the Company completed the acquisition of a corn and soybean processing plant located in Paine, Chile from Anasac, a company that provides seed processing services. In October 2009, the Company completed the acquisition of Seminium, S.A. (Seminium), a corn seed company. In February 2011, the Company acquired Divergence, Inc.
Seeds and Genomics Segment
Through the Company's Seeds and Genomics segment, it produces seed brands, including DEKALB, Asgrow, Deltapine, Seminis and De Ruiter, and it develops biotechnology traits that assist farmers in controlling insects and weeds. It also provides other seed companies with genetic material and biotechnology traits for their seed brands. It has a global distribution and sales and marketing organization for its seeds and traits. It sells products under Monsanto brands and license technology and genetic material to others for sale under their own brands. Through distributors, independent retailers and dealers, agricultural cooperatives, plant raisers, and agents, it markets DEKALB, Asgrow and Deltapine branded germplasm to farmers globally. In the United States, it markets regional seed brands under its American Seeds, LLC and Channel Bio, LLC businesses to farmers directly, as well as through dealers, agricultural cooperatives and agents. It markets and sells trait technologies with branded germplasm, pursuant to license agreements with its farmer customers. In Brazil and Paraguay, its has implemented a point-of-delivery, grain-based payment system. It contracts with grain handlers to collect applicable trait fees when farmers deliver their grain. In addition to selling its products under its own brands, the Company licenses a range of germplasm and trait technologies to large and small seed companies in the United States and certain international markets. Those seed companies in turn market its trait technologies in their branded germplasm; they may also market its germplasm under its own brand name. Its vegetable seeds are marketed in more than 100 countries through distributors, independent retailers and dealers, agricultural cooperatives, plant raisers and agents, as well as directly to farmers.
The Company’s row crop seeds brands include DEKALB, Channel Bio, Asgrow and Deltapine. Its DEKALB and Channel Bio are corn hybrids and foundation seed. Its Asgrow are soybean varieties and foundation seed. Its Deltapine are cotton varieties, hybrids and foundation seed. Canola is its row crop variety and hybrid. Its vegetable seed brands are Seminis and De Ruiter. These are open field and protected-culture seed for tomato, pepper, eggplant, melon, cucumber, pumpkin, squash, beans, broccoli, onions, and lettuce, among others. Its Biotechnology traits include SmartStax, YieldGard, YieldGard VT Triple, VT Triple PRO, VT Double PRO, Roundup Ready and Roundup Ready 2 Yield and Genuity. Its SmartStax, YieldGard, YieldGard VT Triple, VT Triple PRO and VT Double PRO have applications for corn, and Bollgard and Bollgard II have application for cotton. It enables crops to protect themselves from borers and rootworm in corn and leaf- and boll-feeding worms in cotton, reducing the need for applications of insecticides. Its Roundup Ready and Roundup Ready 2 Yield have application for soybeans. The Company’s Genuity is a global umbrella trait brand. It enables crops, such as corn, soybeans, cotton, and canola to be tolerant of Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides. Monsanto also offers farmers stacked-trait products, which are single-seed products in which two or more traits are combined.
Agricultural Productivity Segment
Through the Company's Agricultural Productivity segment, it manufactures Roundup brand herbicides and other herbicides and provide lawn-and-garden herbicide products for the residential market. Its products include Glyphosate-based herbicides, Selective herbicides and Lawn-and-garden herbicides. Its Glyphosate-based herbicides have applications in nonselective agricultural, industrial, ornamental and turf applications for weed control. Its Selective herbicides control preemergent annual grass and small seeded broadleaf weeds in corn and other crops. Its residential lawn-and-garden has applications for weed control. It uses the same distribution and sales and marketing organization for its crop protection products as for its seeds and traits. It also has separate distribution and sales and marketing organizations for its crop protection products. It sells crop protection products through distributors, independent retailers and dealers and agricultural cooperatives. In some cases outside the United States, it sells such products directly to farmers. It also sells certain of the chemical intermediates of its crop protection products to other agricultural chemical producers, who then market their own branded products to farmers. The Company markets its lawn-and-garden herbicide products through The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company.
Between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s, Monsanto had spent approximately $1 billion on developing its biotech business. Although biotech was regarded as a commercially unproven market by some industry analysts, Shapiro pressed forward with the research and development of biotech products, and by the beginning of 1996 he was ready to launch the company's first biotech product line. Monsanto began marketing herbicide-tolerant soybeans, genetically engineered to resist Roundup, and insect-resistant cotton, beginning with two million acres of both crops. By the fall of 1996, there were early indications that the first harvests of genetically engineered crops were performing better than expected. News of the encouraging results prompted Shapiro to make a startling announcement in October 1996, when he revealed that the company was considering divesting its chemical business as part of a major reorganization into a life-sciences company.
By the end of 1996, when Shapiro announced he would spin-off the chemical operations as a separate company, Monsanto faced a future without its core business, a $3 billion contributor to the company's annual revenue volume. Without the chemical operations, Monsanto would be reduced to an approximately $5-billion company deriving half its sales from agricultural products and the rest from pharmaceuticals and food ingredients, but Shapiro did not intend to leave it as such. He foresaw an aggressive push into biotech products, a move that industry pundits generally perceived as astute. "It would be a gamble if they didn't do it," commented one analyst in reference to the proposed divestiture. "Monsanto is trying to transform itself into a high-growth agricultural and life sciences company. Low-growth cyclical chemical operations do not fit that bill." Spurring Shapiro toward this sweeping reinvention of Monsanto were enticing forecasts for the market growth of plant biotech products. A $450 million business in 1995, the market for plant biotech products was expected to reach $2 billion by 2000 and $6 billion by 2005. Shapiro wanted to dominate this fast-growing market as it matured by shaping Monsanto into what he described as the main provider of "agricultural biotechnology."
As preparations were underway for the spin-off of Monsanto's chemical operations into a new, publicly owned company named Solutia Inc., Shapiro was busy filling the void created by the departure of the company's core business. A flurry of acquisitions completed between 1995 and 1997 greatly increased Monsanto's presence in life sciences, quickly compensating for the revenue lost from the spin-off of Solutia. Among the largest acquisitions were Calgene, Inc., a leader in plant biotech, which was acquired in a two-part transaction in 1995 and 1997, and a 40 percent interest in Dekalb Genetics Corp., the second-largest seed-corn company in the United States. In 1998, the company acquired the rest of DeKalb, paying $2.3 billion for the Illinois-based company.
By the end of the 1990s, Monsanto bore only partial resemblance to the company that entered the decade. The acquisition campaign that added dozens of biotechnology companies to its portfolio had created a new, dominant force in the promising life sciences field, placing Monsanto in a position to reap massive rewards in the years ahead. For example, a rootworm-resistant strain under development had the potential to save $1 billion worth of damages to corn crops per year. The company's pharmaceutical business also faced a promising future, highlighted by the introduction of a new arthritis medication named Celebrex in 1999. During its first year, Celebrex registered a record number of prescriptions. As Monsanto entered the 21st century, however, there were two uncertainties that loomed as potentially serious obstacles blocking its future success. The acquisition campaign of the mid- and late-1990s had greatly increased the company's debt, forcing Monsanto to desperately search for cash. Secondly, there was growing opposition to genetically altered crops at the decade's conclusion, prompting the United Kingdom to ban the yields from such crops for a year. A great part of the company's future success depended on the resolution of these two issues.
Principal Subsidiaries: Calgene Inc.; Asgrow Seed Co.; DEKALB Genetics Corp.; DEKALB Swine Breeders Inc.; Nutrasweet Co.; Monsanto Agricultural Co.; G. D. Searle & Co.
OVERALL
Beta: 0.83
Market Cap (Mil.): $35,615.79
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 535.98
Annual Dividend: 1.12
Yield (%): 1.69
FINANCIALS
MON.N Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 28.67 17.17 24.21
EPS (TTM): -2.73 -- --
ROI: 8.79 6.42 17.92
ROE: 11.64 8.31 18.01
Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1933 as Monsanto Chemical Company
Employees: 21,900
Sales: $8.64 billion (1998)
Stock Exchanges: New York Amsterdam Brussels Chicago
Ticker Symbol:MTC
NAIC: 325412 Pharmaceutical Preparations; 325311 Medicinal & Botanical Manufacturing
Name Age Since Current Position
Grant, Hugh 52 2003 Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer
Courduroux, Pierre 45 2011 Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Fraley, Robert 57 2000 Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer
Snively, David 56 2010 Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Secretary
Mizell, Steven 50 2007 Executive Vice President - Human Resources
Steiner, Gerald 50 2008 Executive Vice President - Sustainability & Corporate Affairs
Begemann, Brett 50 2009 Executive Vice President - Seeds & Traits
Holloway, Janet 56 2007 Senior Vice President, Chief of Staff and Community Relations
Hartley, Tom 51 2008 Vice President, Treasurer
Ringenberg, Nicole 49 2009 Vice President, Controller
Preete, Kerry 50 2009 Vice President - Crop Protection
Madere, Consuelo 49 2009 Vice President - Vegetable Business
McMillan, C. Steven 64 2000 Independent Director
King, Gwendolyn 70 2001 Independent Director
Stevens, Robert 59 2002 Independent Director
Poste, George 66 2003 Independent Director
Parfet, William 64 2000 Independent Director
Harper, Arthur 55 2006 Independent Director
Fields, Janice 55 2008 Independent Director
Chicoine, David 63 2009 Independent Director
Ipsen, Laura 46 2010 Independent Director
Address:
800 North Lindbergh Boulevard
St. Louis, Missouri 63167
U.S.A.
Agracetus, owned by Monsanto, exclusively produces Roundup Ready soybean seed for the commercial market. In 2005, it finalized purchase of Seminis Inc, making it the world's largest conventional seed company.
Monsanto's development and marketing of genetically engineered seed and bovine growth hormone, as well as its aggressive litigation, political lobbying practices, seed commercialization practices and "strong-arming" of the seed industry have made the company controversial around the world and a primary target of the alter-globalization movement and environmental activists. As a result of its business strategies and licensing agreements, Monsanto came under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department in 2009.
Monsanto Company (Monsanto), incorporated on February 9, 2000, along with its subsidiaries, is a provider of agricultural products for farmers. The Company's seeds, biotechnology trait products, and herbicides provide farmers with solutions that improve productivity, reduce the costs of farming, and produce better foods for consumers and better feed for animals. It manages business in two segments: Seeds and Genomics, and Agricultural Productivity. In April 2010, the Company completed the acquisition of a corn and soybean processing plant located in Paine, Chile from Anasac, a company that provides seed processing services. In October 2009, the Company completed the acquisition of Seminium, S.A. (Seminium), a corn seed company. In February 2011, the Company acquired Divergence, Inc.
Seeds and Genomics Segment
Through the Company's Seeds and Genomics segment, it produces seed brands, including DEKALB, Asgrow, Deltapine, Seminis and De Ruiter, and it develops biotechnology traits that assist farmers in controlling insects and weeds. It also provides other seed companies with genetic material and biotechnology traits for their seed brands. It has a global distribution and sales and marketing organization for its seeds and traits. It sells products under Monsanto brands and license technology and genetic material to others for sale under their own brands. Through distributors, independent retailers and dealers, agricultural cooperatives, plant raisers, and agents, it markets DEKALB, Asgrow and Deltapine branded germplasm to farmers globally. In the United States, it markets regional seed brands under its American Seeds, LLC and Channel Bio, LLC businesses to farmers directly, as well as through dealers, agricultural cooperatives and agents. It markets and sells trait technologies with branded germplasm, pursuant to license agreements with its farmer customers. In Brazil and Paraguay, its has implemented a point-of-delivery, grain-based payment system. It contracts with grain handlers to collect applicable trait fees when farmers deliver their grain. In addition to selling its products under its own brands, the Company licenses a range of germplasm and trait technologies to large and small seed companies in the United States and certain international markets. Those seed companies in turn market its trait technologies in their branded germplasm; they may also market its germplasm under its own brand name. Its vegetable seeds are marketed in more than 100 countries through distributors, independent retailers and dealers, agricultural cooperatives, plant raisers and agents, as well as directly to farmers.
The Company’s row crop seeds brands include DEKALB, Channel Bio, Asgrow and Deltapine. Its DEKALB and Channel Bio are corn hybrids and foundation seed. Its Asgrow are soybean varieties and foundation seed. Its Deltapine are cotton varieties, hybrids and foundation seed. Canola is its row crop variety and hybrid. Its vegetable seed brands are Seminis and De Ruiter. These are open field and protected-culture seed for tomato, pepper, eggplant, melon, cucumber, pumpkin, squash, beans, broccoli, onions, and lettuce, among others. Its Biotechnology traits include SmartStax, YieldGard, YieldGard VT Triple, VT Triple PRO, VT Double PRO, Roundup Ready and Roundup Ready 2 Yield and Genuity. Its SmartStax, YieldGard, YieldGard VT Triple, VT Triple PRO and VT Double PRO have applications for corn, and Bollgard and Bollgard II have application for cotton. It enables crops to protect themselves from borers and rootworm in corn and leaf- and boll-feeding worms in cotton, reducing the need for applications of insecticides. Its Roundup Ready and Roundup Ready 2 Yield have application for soybeans. The Company’s Genuity is a global umbrella trait brand. It enables crops, such as corn, soybeans, cotton, and canola to be tolerant of Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides. Monsanto also offers farmers stacked-trait products, which are single-seed products in which two or more traits are combined.
Agricultural Productivity Segment
Through the Company's Agricultural Productivity segment, it manufactures Roundup brand herbicides and other herbicides and provide lawn-and-garden herbicide products for the residential market. Its products include Glyphosate-based herbicides, Selective herbicides and Lawn-and-garden herbicides. Its Glyphosate-based herbicides have applications in nonselective agricultural, industrial, ornamental and turf applications for weed control. Its Selective herbicides control preemergent annual grass and small seeded broadleaf weeds in corn and other crops. Its residential lawn-and-garden has applications for weed control. It uses the same distribution and sales and marketing organization for its crop protection products as for its seeds and traits. It also has separate distribution and sales and marketing organizations for its crop protection products. It sells crop protection products through distributors, independent retailers and dealers and agricultural cooperatives. In some cases outside the United States, it sells such products directly to farmers. It also sells certain of the chemical intermediates of its crop protection products to other agricultural chemical producers, who then market their own branded products to farmers. The Company markets its lawn-and-garden herbicide products through The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company.
Between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s, Monsanto had spent approximately $1 billion on developing its biotech business. Although biotech was regarded as a commercially unproven market by some industry analysts, Shapiro pressed forward with the research and development of biotech products, and by the beginning of 1996 he was ready to launch the company's first biotech product line. Monsanto began marketing herbicide-tolerant soybeans, genetically engineered to resist Roundup, and insect-resistant cotton, beginning with two million acres of both crops. By the fall of 1996, there were early indications that the first harvests of genetically engineered crops were performing better than expected. News of the encouraging results prompted Shapiro to make a startling announcement in October 1996, when he revealed that the company was considering divesting its chemical business as part of a major reorganization into a life-sciences company.
By the end of 1996, when Shapiro announced he would spin-off the chemical operations as a separate company, Monsanto faced a future without its core business, a $3 billion contributor to the company's annual revenue volume. Without the chemical operations, Monsanto would be reduced to an approximately $5-billion company deriving half its sales from agricultural products and the rest from pharmaceuticals and food ingredients, but Shapiro did not intend to leave it as such. He foresaw an aggressive push into biotech products, a move that industry pundits generally perceived as astute. "It would be a gamble if they didn't do it," commented one analyst in reference to the proposed divestiture. "Monsanto is trying to transform itself into a high-growth agricultural and life sciences company. Low-growth cyclical chemical operations do not fit that bill." Spurring Shapiro toward this sweeping reinvention of Monsanto were enticing forecasts for the market growth of plant biotech products. A $450 million business in 1995, the market for plant biotech products was expected to reach $2 billion by 2000 and $6 billion by 2005. Shapiro wanted to dominate this fast-growing market as it matured by shaping Monsanto into what he described as the main provider of "agricultural biotechnology."
As preparations were underway for the spin-off of Monsanto's chemical operations into a new, publicly owned company named Solutia Inc., Shapiro was busy filling the void created by the departure of the company's core business. A flurry of acquisitions completed between 1995 and 1997 greatly increased Monsanto's presence in life sciences, quickly compensating for the revenue lost from the spin-off of Solutia. Among the largest acquisitions were Calgene, Inc., a leader in plant biotech, which was acquired in a two-part transaction in 1995 and 1997, and a 40 percent interest in Dekalb Genetics Corp., the second-largest seed-corn company in the United States. In 1998, the company acquired the rest of DeKalb, paying $2.3 billion for the Illinois-based company.
By the end of the 1990s, Monsanto bore only partial resemblance to the company that entered the decade. The acquisition campaign that added dozens of biotechnology companies to its portfolio had created a new, dominant force in the promising life sciences field, placing Monsanto in a position to reap massive rewards in the years ahead. For example, a rootworm-resistant strain under development had the potential to save $1 billion worth of damages to corn crops per year. The company's pharmaceutical business also faced a promising future, highlighted by the introduction of a new arthritis medication named Celebrex in 1999. During its first year, Celebrex registered a record number of prescriptions. As Monsanto entered the 21st century, however, there were two uncertainties that loomed as potentially serious obstacles blocking its future success. The acquisition campaign of the mid- and late-1990s had greatly increased the company's debt, forcing Monsanto to desperately search for cash. Secondly, there was growing opposition to genetically altered crops at the decade's conclusion, prompting the United Kingdom to ban the yields from such crops for a year. A great part of the company's future success depended on the resolution of these two issues.
Principal Subsidiaries: Calgene Inc.; Asgrow Seed Co.; DEKALB Genetics Corp.; DEKALB Swine Breeders Inc.; Nutrasweet Co.; Monsanto Agricultural Co.; G. D. Searle & Co.
OVERALL
Beta: 0.83
Market Cap (Mil.): $35,615.79
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 535.98
Annual Dividend: 1.12
Yield (%): 1.69
FINANCIALS
MON.N Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 28.67 17.17 24.21
EPS (TTM): -2.73 -- --
ROI: 8.79 6.42 17.92
ROE: 11.64 8.31 18.01
Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1933 as Monsanto Chemical Company
Employees: 21,900
Sales: $8.64 billion (1998)
Stock Exchanges: New York Amsterdam Brussels Chicago
Ticker Symbol:MTC
NAIC: 325412 Pharmaceutical Preparations; 325311 Medicinal & Botanical Manufacturing
Name Age Since Current Position
Grant, Hugh 52 2003 Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer
Courduroux, Pierre 45 2011 Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
Fraley, Robert 57 2000 Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer
Snively, David 56 2010 Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Secretary
Mizell, Steven 50 2007 Executive Vice President - Human Resources
Steiner, Gerald 50 2008 Executive Vice President - Sustainability & Corporate Affairs
Begemann, Brett 50 2009 Executive Vice President - Seeds & Traits
Holloway, Janet 56 2007 Senior Vice President, Chief of Staff and Community Relations
Hartley, Tom 51 2008 Vice President, Treasurer
Ringenberg, Nicole 49 2009 Vice President, Controller
Preete, Kerry 50 2009 Vice President - Crop Protection
Madere, Consuelo 49 2009 Vice President - Vegetable Business
McMillan, C. Steven 64 2000 Independent Director
King, Gwendolyn 70 2001 Independent Director
Stevens, Robert 59 2002 Independent Director
Poste, George 66 2003 Independent Director
Parfet, William 64 2000 Independent Director
Harper, Arthur 55 2006 Independent Director
Fields, Janice 55 2008 Independent Director
Chicoine, David 63 2009 Independent Director
Ipsen, Laura 46 2010 Independent Director
Address:
800 North Lindbergh Boulevard
St. Louis, Missouri 63167
U.S.A.