BERLIN, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Bayer AG defended its planned take-over of U.S. agrochemical company Monsanto on Friday in spite of having to offer far-reaching concessions to win approval from antitrust authorities for the deal.
Speaking to investors at Bayer's annual general meeting in Bonn, chief executive officer Werner Baumann expressed confidence that 62.5-billion-dollar purchase remained "just as attractive today" as it did at the start of the acquisition process.
"I have been a part of many transactions in my career and I am convinced that this project has a high value-added potential," Baumann said.
The CEO's comments were made in spite of a reduction in Bayer's officially-estimated value of synergy effects from the merger from 1.5 billion euros (1.75 billion U.S. dollars) per year to 1.2 billion euros per year.
The Leverkusen-based company attributed the change in outlook to having to divest more assets than initially believed to allay antitrust concerns.
Bayer recently revealed that it would cede business units with total annual revenue of 2.2 billion euros to German rival BASF for 7.6 billion euros. Baumann emphasized that the sale was "necessary" for his firm to win regulatory approval for the Monsanto takeover.
Even so, the Bayer-Monsanto fusion continues to face criticism for allegedly concentrating too much commercial power in a single industry player with combined gross revenue of 23 billion euros recorded from agriculture-related business alone.
EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager warned her regulatory agency would scrutinize closely whether "effective competition on products and innovation continues after the merger in the markets for seeds, pesticides and digital agriculture."
Bayer has also been accused as tarnishing its own reputation by tying the knot with Monsanto -- a company which is mainly known in Europe as the producer of the controversial genetically-modified crops and the potentially-carcinogenic pesticide "glyphosate".
Green party (Gruene) parliamentary faction leader Anton Hofreiter has publicly attacked Monsanto for representing "many issues in the agro-industry", adding that genetically-modified products and pesticides were "risk rather than future technologies."
Nevertheless, the CEO expressed confidence that the deal could be concluded successfully soon, noting that the European Union, Brazilian and Chinese regulators had already given their green light to the transaction. Bayer is still awaiting approval from U.S. antitrust authorities.
Founded in 1863, Bayer is one of the world's largest chemicals manufacturers and employs over 99,000 staff across the world. The publicly-listed company recorded annual gross revenue of 35 billion euros in 2017.
