El flujo de caja es crucial para cualquier negocio. Y las corporaciones multinacionales no son diferentes.
Entonces, aunque fue un poco impactante escuchar eso Dow, Chemtura, and a few other producers wanted to shed part or all of their agrochemical businesses to raise capital for operating expenses, it’s no less shocking than watching General Motors or Citigroup crumble from insufficient cash flow.
Curiosamente, estas divisiones de agroquímicos en el bloque de subastas son rentables, pero sus empresas matrices necesitan efectivo, y estas empresas agrícolas son una de las únicas partes de sus carteras de productos químicos que realmente tienen valor en este momento.
So it begs the question: Who’s buying? Few are willing to venture a guess, but it’s clear that these businesses for sale have a lot of value for a potential buyer. They are sophisticated enterprises with environmental safeguards, they are highly automated, and they are operated by technically astute employees.
These are good assets, with a price tag that might be out of reach for all but other multinational corporations. That’s what our readers think as well. More than 50% of respondents to our online survey say that a large company likely will do the buying of the assets for sale. About one-quarter think a smaller company will acquire these larger assets, and about one-quarter think that some sort of merger will take place.
Independientemente de cómo creas que sucederá, la única certeza es que el número de productores de la industria agroquímica se está reduciendo, aparentemente en todos los niveles. Así como las multinacionales se preparan para deshacerse de sus carteras de agroquímicos, la consolidación es eminente en países productores como China e India.
The extremely high prices for crop protection products last year combined with low costs for raw materials set low barriers for entry for producers in these countries. Now, with lower margins, higher production costs and stricter environmental criteria, many smaller companies will go away. But unlike the Chemturas and the Dows of the world, many don’t have facilities worth acquiring.
So the question remains: With even multinationals scrounging around for revenue, how are you managing your business to take market share away from your main competitors? In an era of consolidation, companies that don’t aggressively pursue market share are in danger of losing what they have to those that do.