FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German seed seller KWS Saat (DE:KWSG) made a rival offer for Bayer's (DE:BAYGn) vegetable seed business on Tuesday, a division which Bayer had agreed to sell to BASF (DE:BASFn) as part of its planned merger with Monsanto (N:MON).
The offer is non-binding and KWS did not disclose financial terms, only saying it was offering "Bayer and its shareholders attractive terms and conditions for the sale of the vegetable seed business", which operates under the name Nunhems.
"If Nunhems were acquired by KWS, the agricultural sector, farmers and consumers alike would benefit from the sale to an independent seed company without an agrochemicals division," KWS said in a statement.
Bayer last month struck a deal to sell a number of assets, including its vegetable seed business, to Germany's BASF (DE:BASFn) as a way to assuage anti-trust concerns stemming from its attempt to buy U.S. rival Monsanto.
BASF has already secured EU antitrust approval to buy Bayer's vegetable seed business.
Shares in KWS Saat were indicated 0.2 percent lower in pre-market trade. "Nunhems is worth 1.5 billion euros (1.3 billion pounds), almost the complete market cap of KWS. Isn't it a little too big for KWS," a Frankfurt-based trader said.
Bayer's bid to buy seed and chemical company Monsanto is on track to win U.S. antitrust approval by the end of May, unless there is a last-minute complication, two people familiar with the matter said in late April.