October 15, 2007

Monsanto invests more in Mendel Biotechnology

US biotech giant Monsanto Company has increased its investment in Mendel Biotechnology, Inc., one of the company's key collaborators on agriculture technologies.

Mendel said the additional investment by Monsanto will be used to support the growth of Mendel's new BioEnergy seeds and feedstock business to serve the cellulosic biofuels industry, as well as the further development of its core technology platforms. Mendel will utilise a portion of proceeds to repurchase shares from existing share and option- holders, thereby restructuring the shareholder base of the company and slightly upping Monsanto's share in the company.

Financial details were not disclosed.

Since 1997, Monsanto and Mendel have collaborated to support the discovery and development of new technologies for agriculture. To date, their ventures have influenced several technologies developed by Mendel in Monsanto's product pipeline, including higher-yielding soy that creates increased yield benefits over conventional soy.

Steve Padgette, Ph.D., Vice President of Biotechnology at Monsanto and a member of the board of directors at Mendel said both companies' efforts will be significant in developing biotechnology, especially in the cellulosic biofuels arena.