American Vanguard Corporation (NYSE:AVD), through its principal operating subsidiary, AMVAC Chemical Corporation, today announced the signing of an agreement to acquire certain US assets relating to the three crop protection product lines — Abamectin, Chlorothalonil and Paraquat — from subsidiaries of Adama Agricultural Solutions Ltd., which is part of the China National Chemical Corporation (“ChemChina”) group. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The acquisition is part of a consent agreement between the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”), on the one hand, and ChemChina and Syngenta AG, on the other hand, under which ChemChina is required to divest these assets as a pre-condition for ChemChina’s proposed acquisition of Syngenta AG. The FTC published the subject consent decree on its website on April 4, 2017, is soliciting public comment for a period of 30 days and will also publish it in the Federal Register imminently.
The assets include trademarks, product registrations, registration data, and commercial information that relate to the marketing and sale of these three products in the crop protection market within the United States.
Eric Wintemute, Chairman & CEO of American Vanguard commented: “We are excited about the prospect of acquiring these product lines for crop use domestically. For some time, we have been reporting that industry consolidation will result in acquisition opportunities, and this is exactly the kind of deal that we had been anticipating. We expect to give more color on this deal once the ChemChina-Syngenta merger closes.”
About American Vanguard
American Vanguard Corporation is a diversified specialty and agricultural products company that develops and markets products for crop protection and management, turf and ornamentals management and public and animal health. American Vanguard is included on the Russell 2000®& Russell 3000® Indexes and the Standard & Poors Small Cap 600 Index. To learn more about American Vanguard, please reference the Company’s web site at www.american-vanguard.com.
In its public commentary, the Company may discuss forward-looking information. Except for the historical information contained in this release, all forward-looking statements are estimates by the Company’s management subject to various risks and uncertainties that may cause results to differ from management’s current expectations. Such factors include weather conditions, changes in regulatory policy and other risks as detailed in the Company’s SEC reports and filings. All forward-looking statements, if any, in this release represent the Company’s judgment as of the date of this release.
Contact Information
William A. Kuser, Director of Investor Relations
(949) 260-1200
williamk@amvac-chemical.com
The Equity Group Inc.
Lena Cati
(212) 836-9611
Lcati@equityny.com