Bayer weighing options for consumer garden products

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's BAYER (BAY.MC)(BAYN.XE)said it was considering strategic options for its home and garden consumer products business, maker of Baby Bio plant feed, as its crop protection arm focuses on professional customers.

People familiar with the matter told Reuters that Bayer was preparing to sell the business and was gauging the interest of prospective buyers, which could be private equity or industry players. The business generated 220 million euros ($236 million) in annual sales last year.

"A number of strategic alternatives are under consideration," a spokesman for the diversified drugs and pesticides maker said on Friday.

Bayer is in the middle of an overhaul, splitting off its plastics division and working on a new corporate set-up for the life-science businesses that will remain. Sources have said it is also looking into hiving off its blood glucose-meter business.

The consumer gardening business reported sales growth of more than 10 percent last year, according to Bayer's annual report. Its brands also include Provado and Natria gardening products.

The business is part of Bayer's Environmental Science unit with 678 million euros in 2014 sales, which also caters for professional users in forestry, gardening and landscaping.

The sources said Bayer felt encouraged by the 2011 sale of garden fertilizer business Compo by German potash miner K+S to buyout firm Triton for $205 million including debt.

At the time, Compo had about 400 million euros in annual sales from fertilizers and potting soil. Earlier this month, Triton sold part of the business, Compo Expert, to Chinese-backed XIO Group.

(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Keith Weir)