A Monsanto official said on Monday the company plans to sell its wholly owned subsidiary Stoneville Pedigree Seed Co in early 1999. Robert Fraley, co-president of Monsanto's Agriculture Sector, said the company "will initiate an auction process for the sale of Stoneville."

Monsanto officials did not say how much they hope to earn from the sale of Stoneville.

Stoneville is the second largest US cotton seed breeder behind Delta & Pine Land. Analysts have long speculated that Monsanto would be required to divest some of its cotton assets before the US Justice Department would approve its planned acquisition of Delta, which was first announced in May. The Justice Department in June requested more details on the deal.

A Monsanto spokeswoman declined tospeculate on whether selling Stoneville would bring the company closer to Justice Department approval.

"They fact that they're going to sell it (Stoneville) is not surprising because that is the only way they were going to be able to buy Delta & Pine Land," said George Dahlman, agribusiness analyst with Piper Jaffray.

Dahlman said the most likely candidate to buy Stoneville is Rhone-Poulenc SA, the French life sciences firm. Other bidders will likely include Dow Chemical Co, which owns seed company Mycogen Corp, and Hoechst Schering AgrEvo GmbH, Dahlman said.

A spokeswoman for Dow's agricultural unit Dow AgroSciences could not be reached. Calls to AgrEvo's North American offices in Regina, Canada, were not immediately returned, and Rhone-Poulenc could not be reached.

Another analyst who declined to be named said the sale of Stoneville would also help Monsanto pay for an estimated $6 billion in acquisitions it announced in 1998. The company has said it will divest some assets to help pay for thepurchases.

"Monsanto wants to raise some money," the analyst said."