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ChemChina’s acquisition of Syngenta remains the largest takeover of a foreign company by a Chinese firm. Photo: AFP

Syngenta, Swiss agrichemicals giant owned by ChemChina, kick-starts process to list on Shanghai’s Star Market

  • Syngenta was acquired by state-backed ChemChina for US$43 billion in 2017 in biggest takeover of a foreign firm by a Chinese entity
  • Basel-based agrichemical giant files compulsory ‘tutoring report’ with Chinese regulatory commission, seen as a precursor to a stock listing
IPO
Syngenta Group, owned by state-backed ChemChina or China National Chemical Corp, has kick started the process to possibly list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Nasdaq-like Star Market by preparing its executives for the outcome.

The Swiss agrichemicals giant filed a pre-listing “tutoring report” with the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on Monday. CICC, BOC International and Citic Securities, the three investment banks that are advising Syngenta on the IPO, will provide the training, according to its filing.

The company’s senior executives will be trained on how to prepare initial public offering (IPO) documents in compliance with the Star Market’s listing rules , as part of a compulsory pre-listing tutoring procedure. The procedure, which can take from three to 12 months, is required of listing applicants to the Shanghai or Shenzhen stock exchanges.

The 250-year-old group based in Basel is at the cutting edge of biotechnology and developed the first genetically modified cereal for human consumption. It fully sequenced the DNA of the rice genome in 2001.

The headquarters of ChemChina in Beijing. Investors will have to consider the ramifications of ChemChina being added to a blacklist of companies by the Pentagon in August last year. Photo: Reuters
ChemChina’s US$43 billion acquisition of Syngenta in 2017 remains the largest takeover of a foreign company by a Chinese firm. The Chinese parent committed to listing Syngenta within five years of closing the deal.

The company will follow up the tutoring report with a formal submission seeking to trade its A shares in Shanghai, Syngenta said in its CSRC filing. Any listing would be subject to regulatory approval, it added.

Syngenta develops, produces and commercialises a wide range of seeds, as well as crop protection and crop nutrition products, along with the provision of modern agricultural services. The company aims to help farmers increase their yields and adopt sustainable practices.

China’s ambassador says ChemChina’s Syngenta takeover was a bad deal

The company was restructured into four units last year – Syngenta Crop Protection, Syngenta Seeds, Syngenta Group China and ADAMA – and operates in more than 100 countries. Syngenta Crop Protection is doing research in seed treatments that promote healthy plant growth, while Syngenta Seeds is one of the world’s largest seed developers and producers.

Syngenta Group China is the country’s leader in crop protection and crop nutrition, and the no. 2 company in seeds. ADAMA, which is traded on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, is a crop protection company.

ChemChina merged with Sinochem in April, creating the world’s largest industrial chemicals firm, and alleviating ChemChina’s debt burden.
At one point last year, ChemChina was included among a group of blacklisted companies that the Pentagon claimed had ties with China’s military. It was not included in a revised list released in June as part of an executive order by US President Joe Biden that bars Americans from investing in a group of 59 companies with purported ties to the Chinese military, or who were accused of selling surveillance technology used against religious minorities or dissidents.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Syngenta gets flotation process started
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