, ending a painful 12-year stay at the ASX-listed chemicals group.
Sumitomo got its Nufarm shares in January 2010, and negotiated strategic agreements to work together distributing chemicals globally. Sumitomo, despite dusting hundreds of millions, sat there patiently throughout it all. It had a director on Nufarm’s board and continued with the strategic agreements, while Nufarm went about reshaping and broadening its chemicals portfolio.Fast-forward 12 years and Sumitomo cemented the losses, selling in the mid $5 a share range. Citi ran a book on Monday night, taking bids at $5.38 to $5.61 a share, as revealed by Street Talk.
Sumitomo had been seen to be a seller for at least the past few years, and particularly so once the Tokyo Stock Exchange released a corporate governance code that discouraged minority cross shareholders, like Sumitomo’s 15.9 per cent stake in Nufarm.