Upon today’s entry in the commercial register, the company’s legal form has changed from KWS SAAT SE into KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA as adopted by the Annual General Meeting on December 14, 2018.
As part of the change in legal form, KWS SE will join the company as general partner. It will be majority-owned by investment companies of the shareholder families C.-E. Büchting and Arend Oetker. Its Executive Board will be identical to the previous Executive Board of KWS SAAT SE. The shareholders of KWS SAAT SE will automatically become limited partners of the new KGaA. The change of legal form will not result in liquidation of the company or formation of a new legal entity. The company’s legal and economic identity will be retained, and the composition of the supervisory board remains unchanged.
The change in legal form is to sustainably further the company’s continuing growth strategy. As a KGaA, KWS will be able to leverage future growth opportunities with greater agility and flexibility and raise the equity required for that without losing the company’s character as a listed family business.
The shares of KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA will continue to be registered under the established International Securities Identification Number (ISIN: DE0007074007).
About KWS*
KWS is one of the world’s leading plant breeding companies. In the fiscal year 2017/18 more than 5,000 employees in 70 countries generated net sales of EUR 1,068 million and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of EUR 133 million. A company with a tradition of family ownership, KWS has operated independently for more than 160 years. It focuses on plant breeding and the production and sale of seed for corn, sugarbeet, cereals, rapeseed and sunflowers. KWS uses leading-edge plant breeding methods to increase farmers’ yields and to improve resistance to diseases, pests and abiotic stress. To that end, the company invested almost EUR 200 million last fiscal year in research and development.
*All figures exclude the companies carried at equity AGRELIANT GENETICS LLC., AGRELIANT GENETICS INC. and KENFENG – KWS SEEDS CO., LTD.
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