Yongye International, Inc has made an announcement today that it had entered into a definitive merger agreement with British Virgin Islands company Full Alliance International Limited. The resulting company from the merger, Yongye International Merger Sub Limited, would be merged into Yongye's parent company, Yongye International Limited.

The merger would have Yongye pay Full Alliance USD6.69 per share. The merger agreement was to be funded via senior debt financing up to USD214 million from the Inner Mongolian branch of China Development Bank Corporation and USD35 million mezzanine debt financing from Lead Rich International Limited.

Yongye's board of directors and the special committee that was formedly primarily to review the merger proposal unanimously agreed with the transaction. The merger would be finalized before early 2014, and would be subject to regulatory approvals.

Yongye would still be needing shareholder approval to proceed with the merger. The merger would privatize Yongye and would be delisted from the NASDAQ bourse.