BASF wins conditional EU approval to buy Bayer assets

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - German chemicals maker BASF (BASFn.DE) secured EU antitrust approval on Monday to acquire a package of businesses from Bayer (BAYGn.DE) after pledging to sell some assets to address competition concerns.

The European Commission said the concessions addressed concerns that the deal may reduce innovation for some herbicides and certain seed treatments.

The EU competition enforcer said BASF will sell one of the overlapping lines of research for the development of non-selective herbicides and its nematicidal seed treatment product Trunemco.

BASF is acquiring some of Bayer's seed and herbicide assets, its global vegetable seeds business, its digital farming business and certain seed treatments.

German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer is selling the assets in return for EU approval for its $62.5 billion (45.5 billion pounds) acquisition of U.S. peer Monsanto (MON.N). It received the go-ahead last month.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Robert-Jan Bartunek)