Calcutta, June 10: AgrEvo India Ltd and Rhone-Poulenc Agrochemicals, whichannounced a strategic alliance in March this year, will take a decision ontheir proposed merger by the end of this year. At present, the two companiesare operating under one umbrella, Aventis CropScience. These two companiescame together as a fallout of the global merger of two internationalpharmaceutical majors -- Rhone-Poulenc and Hoechst. In India, the agrochemicalbusinesses of these two companies are still operating as two different legalentities but have one common face at the customers' end.The deputy managing director of Aventis CropScience, M Ramesh, said thatthough no decision had been taken on the merger, it was not being ruled out."We have not yet decided whether we will merge the two companies but we areclosely talking among ourselves. At the customers' end we have only oneentity. However, by the end of this year we will have to take a decision,"he said. At present, the Aventis CropScience Group in India has fourentities held variously by Aventis CropScience Holding SA, Lyon. It has a50.1 per cent stake In AgrEvo India Ltd, 51 per cent In Bilag India Ltd and98 per cent in ProAgro Seeds. Rhone-Poulenc Agrochemicals (India) is itswholly-owned subsidiary.
However, when the global merger was announced, the industry expected thatthese two companies would also be merged in India as a result. Ramesh said:"Well, these two companies can continue to operate as two different legalentities."
The combined net turnover of AgrEvo India and Rhone-Poulenc Agrochemicalswas around Rs 370 crore in 1999. Of the total sales, 60 per cent was frominsecticides, 35 per cent from herbicides and the rest from fungicides.Ramesh said that the target for the current year was around Rs 400 crore.
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