Bayer to close Monsanto deal Thursday

BERLIN — German pharmaceutical company Bayer AG said Monday that it plans to complete its purchase of U.S. seed and weedkiller maker Monsanto Co. this week after receiving all the required approvals from regulators.

Bayer said in a statement that it plans to complete the acquisition on Thursday.

The deal will cost some $63 billion including debt. To obtain regulatory approval, Bayer has committed to divest some businesses, agreeing among other things to the U.S. government’s demand that it sell about $9 billion in agriculture activities.

Bayer will become Monsanto’s sole shareholder Thursday. The company said that, according to the terms of the U.S. approval, it can integrate Monsanto as soon as divestments to Germany’s BASF demanded by regulators have been completed. That is expected to take about two months.

Bayer said that, following the takeover, “Monsanto will no longer be a company name.”

San Francisco-based Twitter will replace Monsanto in the S&P 500, a benchmark index of the U.S. stock market.

S&P Dow Jones Indices says the change will become effective prior to the open of trading on Thursday.

Netflix will replace Monsanto on the S&P 100, a subset of the S&P 500 for some of the largest companies.

— Bloomberg News