Bayer AG is days away from a transformation into the world’s biggest maker of seeds and agricultural chemicals, saying it plans to close its purchase of Monsanto Co. this week.

Once final regulatory approvals are in, the Leverkusen, Germany-based company plans to close the deal Thursday while raising as much as 26 billion euros (US$30 billion) in shares and bonds. Bayer will retain its name and drop Monsanto’s.

The purchase is part of a multiyear transformation, as Bayer sold off its legacy plastics business and remade itself into a life-science company with half its sales from health and half from agriculture. It’s the third in a series of mega-deals in the industry, following Dow Chemical Co.’s merger with DuPont Co. and China National Chemical Corp.’s takeover of Syngenta AG.

“The acquisition of Monsanto is a strategic milestone in strengthening our portfolio of leading businesses in health and nutrition,” Chief Executive Officer Werner Baumann said in a statement Monday.

Bayer shares rose 0.8 per cent to 104.2 euros at 9:04 a.m. in Frankfurt. The shares have returned 3 per cent this year, compared with a 0.6 per cent loss in the benchmark DAX Index.

Justice Agreement

Bayer plans to raise 6 billion euros in a rights offering and 20 billion euros from bond sales, it said Sunday. The total deal value of US$63 billion reflects Monsanto’s outstanding debt as of Feb. 28.

Under the rights offering, existing shareholders will be able to buy two new shares for every 23 held at a price of 81 euros, Bayer said. That’s a discount of about 22 per cent to the German company’s June 1 closing price.

The offering has been underwritten by a group of 20 banks. Joint global coordinators are Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse. Bayer raised a US$56.9 billion loan in October 2016 to support the acquisition, the company said at the time.

To gain approval for the deal from the U.S. Justice Department, Bayer agreed to sell assets to BASF SE. The divestiture package is worth about US$9 billion, the largest in a U.S. merger-enforcement case, the government said.

--With assistance from Tom Freke