Syngenta must explain 'Plan B' after Monsanto scraps $47 bln bid -investors

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By Sinead Cruise and Simon Jessop

LONDON, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Syngenta (Xetra: 580854 - news) shareholders called on the company's board to clarify how it intends to make up billions of dollars of lost shareholder value after Monsanto Co ditched its $47 billion bid for the Swiss group.

"What I am looking for now is what Syngenta has to say. Now (Frankfurt: 11N.F - news) we need the board and the management to explain their Plan B," said Pauline McPherson, co-fund manager of Kames Capital's global equity fund, which holds Syngenta stock.

"The ball is firmly in their camp with regards to creating the value they have just refused," she added.

Goodwill towards Syngenta's management has dropped in recent weeks after they used YouTube to communicate with some smaller shareholders in the wake of the earlier, unwelcome Monsanto approach at 449 Swiss francs.

That compounded concerns that management had failed to impress with regard to performance and execution of strategy in recent years, said a top-30 investor.

"The Syngenta management team lacks a strong supportive base of shareholders, probably because it lacks credibility after a couple of years of weakish operating performance," he said.

A Sanford C. Bernstein survey captured the downbeat mood and showed 92 percent of current and former investors polled had been willing to back a deal at 473 Swiss francs.

Guillaume Delorme, fund manager at top-40 shareholder Oddo Asset Management, told Reuters on Tuesday, ahead of the aborted bid, that Syngenta had yet to propose a convincing plan on how it would reach its 2018 profitability targets.

And for a second top-30 investor, Syngenta's management had to explain why they were so reluctant to open their books, given the security of a bumper $3 billion break fee that equated to a year's earnings before interest and tax.

"There will be a huge amount of pressure ... whether they care is another matter ... They had a reasonable bid on the table and now the share has fallen.

"I'm not particularly clear what they can do to placate investors. They will probably turn around and say 'we told you what we want to do, but you don't believe us'. (Now (NYSE: DNOW - news) ) they need to deliver."

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Syngenta closed down 18.2 percent at 309.90 francs, below the 314.40 francs level where they stood on April 30, before stories began to emerge of talks between the two companies. (Additional reporting by Oliver Hirt in Zurich and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Alexander Smith and David Holmes)