After a nearly three-year battle with South African regulators, DuPont Co. said Wednesday that it has completed the purchase of a majority stake in South Africa’s Pannar Seed. The deal greatly expands the chemical and seed company’s access to new markets, and will help it boost research efforts and seed availability for farmers in Africa.
DuPont’s Pioneer subsidiary, based in Des Moines, Iowa, is the second-biggest seed company in the United States after Monsanto Co. It now takes control of an 80 percent stake in Pannar Seed Ltd., a 55-year-old firm with operations throughout Africa and in other parts of the world. Financial terms weren’t disclosed, but DuPont Pioneer President Paul Schickler said it is one of the largest deals in the subsidiary’s history and DuPont’s largest investment on the African continent.
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