On Tuesday, Monsanto executives announced that the Missouri-based agribusiness giant had turned down a second buyout offer from Pharmaceutical and agchem behemoth Bayer.

After the US seed giant mounted a failed bid to acquire Swiss agribusiness Syngenta, Bayer offered to buy Monsanto out for $62bn in May. Last week, after details of Monsanto’s talks with German chemistry and biosciences company BASF were leaked to the press, Bayer released information of an improved offer submitted on 9th July. In its July offer, Bayer raised its bid for Monsanto to $64bn (£48.7bn), and promised a $1.5 billion reverse antitrust break fee to allay Monsanto’s regulatory concerns.

On Thursday, Bayer’s CEO Werner Bauman said the latest offer of $125 per share represented a premium of 40 percent over Monsanto’s closing share price on 9th May 2016.

However, Monsanto turned the bid down on Tuesday. A statement from the company states that Monsanto’s “Board of Directors unanimously views Bayer AG’s revised proposal as financially inadequate and insufficient to ensure deal certainty.”

Monsanto execs said they remain open to continued and constructive conversations with Bayer “and other parties".

Bayer’s designs on Monsanto have caused controversy, not only amongst environmentalists in Germany, who have pledged to oppose any takeover which they feel would amount to an unacceptable consolidation of major agribusinesses that would likely ‘disappear’ a tarnished brand, but also amongst Bayer shareholders, who reportedly feel that its pursuit of Monsanto marks a departure from the company’s long-term strategy.