Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

MON inks deal with JPM/GS for the first $6B of $11B share buyback:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/monsanto-company-announces-6-billion-212900276.html

Monsanto Company announced that it has entered into accelerated share repurchase (ASR) agreements with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. and Goldman, Sachs & Co. to repurchase an aggregate of $6 billion of the company’s common stock. Today’s ASR is part of Monsanto’s share repurchase programs under which an additional $10 billion of authority was recently announced on June 25, 2014.

Under the terms of the ASR agreements, Monsanto will repurchase $3 billion of its common stock from each of JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. and Goldman, Sachs & Co., with an aggregate initial delivery of approximately 38.6 million shares based on current market prices. The final number of shares to be repurchased will be based on Monsanto’s volume-weighted average stock price during the term of the transaction, less a discount.

The [ASR] program is expected to be completed in up to nine months.

Adding the $1B remaining on MON’s old buyback authorization brings MON’s total planned buybacks to $11B: the $6B, 9-month “ASR” described above and an additional $5B in due course.

The approximately 39M shares to be repurchased via the ASR during the next 9 months represent a little more than 7% of MON’s total shares outstanding.