BASF'S CFO: 4,300 employees to be transferred from Bayer acquisition, few cost reductions

BASF SE (BAS.XE) doesn't anticipate any significant savings following the integration of Bayer AG's (BAYN.XE) agricultural businesses, Chief Financial Officer Hans-Ulrich Engel said last Friday.

European regulators recently gave the green light for BASF to buy a group of agricultural assets that Bayer is selling to gain approval for its proposed takeover of Monsanto Co. (MON), in a deal valued at around 7.6 billion euros ($9.11 billion).

The businesses are largely complementary to BASF's existing portfolio so there are unlikely to be any cost synergies, although there may be volume synergies, Mr. Engel said on a conference call following BASF's first-quarter earnings release.

A total of 4,300 employees as well as several production sites and various research stations will be transferred to BASF as part of the deal.

Mr. Engel said he expects BASF to take over all businesses except the vegetable-seeds unit by the middle of the year.

He declined to specify the projected costs for the subsequent integration, but said they will mostly be booked in the second half of the year.

For seasonal reasons, the new units are expected to weigh on BASF's earnings before interest and taxes in the second half of the year, he said.