Mr. Steiblin: Syngenta is a new company that was created in November 2000 by the merger of Novartis Agribusiness and Zeneca Agrochemicals. As a result of this merger, Syngenta is the global number one in agribusiness, with pro forma sales in 2000 of 6.8 billion; 86% of these sales reside in crop protection, which is the industry name for agrochemicals, and 14% is in seeds.
TWST: Can you give us your assessment of the agribusiness space, the important trends and developments in progress?
We are, therefore, forming a new sector that is, in terms of how analysts would view it, somewhere between pharmaceuticals and chemicals. We have some of the characteristics of both, but we are neither pharmaceuticals nor specialty chemicals. The key differences with specialty chemicals are the importance of our R&D investment, the structure of our markets, and the fact that we have a future linked to advanced biological technologies. That makes us quite different.
Tickers included in this excerpt: SYA.L, SYT
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