ST. LOUIS, MO - Monsanto is cutting as many as 2,600 jobs in the next 18 to 24 months to trim company costs.

5 KDSK reports that the company is cutting back after its fourth quarter came in at a loss, including restructuring its operations and leaving the sugar cane market completely.

Despite a $495 million loss, the company did announce that it has entered into a number of accelerated repurchase agreements with several financial institutions to repurchase an aggregate of $3 billion of the company’s common stock, including:

• Citibank
• N.A.
• JP Morgan
• Chase Bank

According to the release, the ASR is part of the $10 billion share repurchase authorization that Monsanto announced in June of 2014.

“With the successful completion of our previous $6 billion accelerated share buyback in fiscal year 2015, we’ve repurchased more than 10 percent of our shares outstanding since June 2014,” said Pierre Courduroux, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Monsanto Company. “Today’s new $3 billion accelerated share repurchase agreements demonstrate our continued commitment to creating and returning value to our shareowners, as we progress toward our targeted capital structure.”

As for the company’s plans to restructure its approach, 5 KDSK reports that Monsanto plans to streamline some research development and commercial work, as well as developing more plans to cut spending back by an additional $100 million. Added with the company’s projections to save about $275 to $300 million annually by the end of the fiscal 2017 year, it hopes to have managed to save upwards of $400 million in expenses in the next two years.

As we previously reported, Monsanto had expressed interest in pursuing other acquisitions after abandoning an attempt to buy out European rival Syngenta last summer, however the company did not address this further in its plans to reorganize.

Monsanto