Monsanto had bought 3.3 million shares in Ceres's E round last year at $6.50 per share following a $137m collaboration signed in 2002 applying genomics technologies to identify genes that provide improvements in corn, soybean and certain other row crops, according to its regulatory filing.

Ceres, a US-based seller of grass seeds to produce feedstocks for energy production backed by peer Monsanto, plans to raise $100m in its Nasdaq flotation.

Monsanto owns 6.4% of Ceres, which raised $20m in its series G round in June last year by selling shares at $6.50 each. Monsanto had bought 3.3 million shares in Ceres’s E round last year at $6.50 per share following a $137m collaboration signed in 2002 applying genomics technologies to identify genes that provide improvements…