Monsanto's quarterly loss narrows as expenses drop

U.S. seeds and agrochemicals company Monsanto Co , which agreed last month to be bought by Germany's Bayer AG for $66 billion, reported a smaller quarterly loss on Wednesday, helped by higher corn seed volumes and lower expenses.

The net loss attributable to Monsanto narrowed to $191 million, or 44 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended Aug. 31 from $495 million, or $1.06 per share, a year earlier.

Net sales of the company, known for its genetically engineered corn, soybean and the Roundup herbicide, rose 8.8 percent to $2.56 billion.

Monsanto did not offer any update on potential divestitures related to the Bayer deal.

(Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago and Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr)