Rasi Seeds acquires Bayer's hybrid corn seed business in India

Rasi Seeds has acquired the hybrid corn seed business of Bayer BioScience in India for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will immediately help Rasi double its share in the fast growing Indian hybrid corn seed market, estimated at close to Rs 1,000 crore annually.

“Bayer was looking to divest its corn seed business for some time now and we have acquired it,” said M. Ramasami, Chairman and Managing Director, Rasi Seeds.

India was the only geography, where Bayer Crop Science had a presence in the corn seed segment, through its subsidiary BioScience.

However, Ramasami refused to comment on the deal size citing non-disclosures as part of the agreement, signed last Friday. The deal is expected to be completed by May 31.

Bayer was one of the top 10 players in the Indian corn seed market and its volumes were around 3,000 tonnes a year, almost same as that of Rasi.

Multinationals Pioneer Hi-Bred, a subsidiary of DuPont and Monsanto, followed by Syngenta are the major players in the Indian corn seed market estimated annually at close to 90,000 tonnes.

Besides bringing Bayer’s five to six hybrid varieties to Rasi’s portfolio, the acquisition will also give the Attur, Salem-based firm access to the multinational’s corn germplasm and breeding stations in Bangalore, Hyderabad and in North India, said Arvind Kapur, Chief Executive Officer of Rasi’ vegetable seed business.

“We aim to increase the corn seed volumes to around 10,000-12,000 tonnes in the next few years and will also explore the markets in South-East Asia,” Ramasami said.

Rasi clocked a turnover of over Rs 400 crore last year and earned bulk of its revenues from the Bt cotton hybrids.

Corn is one of the fastest growing cereal crops in India and its acreage has increased to 8.7 million hectares with production exceeding 20 million tonnes on rising demand from segments such as poultry and livestock feed and starch makers.

The Indian hybrid seed market estimated at $2.4 billion in fiscal 2013 is expected to grow to $3.2 billion by 2016 at an compounded annual growth of 11 per cent.