Bayer Plans Monsanto Close Amid $30 Billion Share, Bond Sale

Bayer AG is days away from a transformation into the world’s biggest maker of seeds and agricultural chemicals, saying it plans to close its purchase of Monsanto Co. this week. Bayer will retain its name and drop Monsanto’s as it closes the deal Thursday while raising as much as 26 billion euros ($30 billion) in shares and bonds. The purchase is part of a multiyear transformation, as Bayer sold off its legacy plastics business and remade itself into a life-science company with roughly half its sales from medicines and half from agriculture.