BRUSSELS — With the approval last week of the $130 billion merger of the DowDuPont combination by the European Union’s competition watchdog, the DuPont Co. has begun shedding a number of its minor assets as part of its EU agreement.

 

Its latest sell-off was its crop protection Cereal Broadleaf Herbicides and Chewing Insecticides portfolios. In addition, DuPont said it will divest its crop protection research and development pipeline organization, excluding its successful seed treatment, nematicides and its latest age research and development (R&D) programs.

 

The EU-ordered concessions “are expected to create significant cost synergies of approximately $3 billion with a potential for $1 billion more in growth synergies,” DowDuPont said in a statement. In announcing EU’s approval, Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said, “Pesticides are products that matter to farmers, consumers and the environment. We need effective competition in this sector so companies are pushed to develop products that are ever safer for people and better for the environment.

 

“Our decision ensures that the merger between Dow and DuPont does not reduce price competition for existing pesticides or innovation for safer and better products in the future.”

 

DuPont announced on March 30 that FMC Agricultural Solutions, headquartered in Philadelphia, was acquiring the company’s global chewing pest insecticide portfolio, its global cereal broadleaf herbicides business and a substantial portion of DuPont’s global crop protection R&D operations. As part of the deal, DuPont will receive $1.2 billion in cash and acquire FMC’s Health and Nutrition division.

 

As another part of the EU agreement, Dow sold its global Ethylene Acrylic Acid (EAA) copolymers and ionomers business to the SK Global Chemical Co., a privately held entity based in Seoul. The South Korean company paid $370 million for the division that makes adhesives used in wrapping products, such as aluminum foil.

 

With the mega-merger, Dow and DuPont is splitting into three separate companies. Two of those will focus on agricultural and specialty sciences and will be based in Delaware. The third, a material sciences company, will be located in Midland, Mich., the historic central Michigan home of Dow.

 

As the deal worked its way through the regulatory process in the United States and Europe, the company began down sizing. In 2015, when the deal was first announced, DuPont laid off thousands of workers in Delaware and around the world.

 

Last summer Dow began eliminating 2,500 jobs, or 4 percent of its workforce, and said it will also close some plants before the merger is finalized. Dow is cutting 700 jobs in Michigan’s Great Lakes Bay Region, with the state’s layoffs to be completed by June of next year.

 

Before the merger began, the two companies had 59,500 employees globally, with 8,500 in Michigan, with the companies having a combined market capitalization of roughly $130 billion.

 

The DowDuPont deal is one of three mega-billion mergers in the agricultural sector in the United States and around the world.

 

The EU Commission is also working against its own April 12 deadline to approve the acquisition of Swiss seed and pesticide manufacturer Syngenta AG by the China National Chemical Corp. for $43 billion. The deal passed its biggest hurdle last year after the U.S. national security regulator gave its approval. In February, Syngenta said the U.S. had asked for more time to review the takeover, aiming to finalize the review to match EU’s April timeline.

 

Next, the EU said it would take on a review of the $66 billion merger of Germany’s pharmaceutical and chemical group Bayer AG with U.S. seed giant, St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. At the end of February, Bayer announced the deal may face delays in winning over regulators, but it still hopes to close the merger by the end of 2017.

 

Bayer said it was responding to a second request for information from the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust watchdog. The deal is under review by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment while Bayer has been meeting with financial groups to secure a $57 billion bridge loan.