Bayer sells Cary-based pest-control division to private-equity firm for $2.6B
German pharmaceutical giant Bayer has sold its environmental science professional business, which employs around 200 people in Cary, to a private equity firm, the company said Thursday.
The sale to the firm Cinven values the environmental science division at $2.6 billion.
Bayer first announced its intentions to sell its environmental science business last year, as part of an effort to focus on its core agricultural business, The News & Observer previously reported.
The environmental science division, which is headquartered in Cary and has 800 employees around the world, makes products for pest control and golf course management. In 2019, it generated more than $719 million in sales.
Bayer’s decision to sell the business came after the company bought rival Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018. The deal eventually saddled Bayer with several lawsuits related to the weed killer Roundup, which plaintiffs have claimed caused cancer.
“This divestment represents a very attractive purchase price and allows us to focus on our core agricultural business and the successful implementation of our Crop Science Division growth strategy,” Rodrigo Santos, Bayer’s president of the crop science division, said in a statement.
The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2022, Bayer said.
Around 50% of environmental science’s sales are in the U.S., making the Cary office well situated for the business, Gilles Galliou, the division’s CEO, said last year.
It wasn’t immediately clear what the sale will mean for the division’s Cary-based employees. Bayer and Cinven have not yet responded to a request for comment.
However, in a statement, Cinven said it hoped to accelerate growth at the division.
“As a long-established global investment firm, Cinven is well positioned to continue to drive innovation and accelerate growth at Environmental Science Professional, including the delivery of digital and data-enabled solutions, as well as make the business more agile in responding to the unique needs of its markets and customers,” Pontus Pettersson, Cinven’s head of industrial, said in a statement.
The sale of the environmental science business is yet another example of how Bayer has slowly diminished its presence in the Triangle. At its peak, the company had 1,000 employees in the Triangle.
After it bought Monsanto in 2018, Bayer moved 500 crop science jobs to St. Louis, The News & Observer previously reported.
Before moving to Cary, the environmental science division was based in Research Triangle Park.
It moved to Cary after Bayer sold much of its holdings in RTP to BASF, which bought Bayer’s seed and herbicide businesses. BASF ended up taking on 300 of Bayer’s employees as part of that deal.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate
This story was originally published March 10, 2022 at 6:12 PM.
