Syngenta takeover ‘wasn’t a good deal for the Chinese side’, Beijing envoy says amid Swiss debate on company sales to foreign entities
- Gen Wenbin quoted as saying he would have stopped US$43 billion deal in 2017
Beijing’s ambassador to Switzerland has said ChemChina’s US$43 billion takeover of seed and agrochemicals company Syngenta was a mistake, and added he would have tried to stop the 2017 deal had he been in Bern at the time, according to media reports on Saturday.
“If I had been the ambassador a year earlier, the takeover wouldn’t have taken place,” Gen Wenbin was quoted as telling the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, without giving specific reasons for his opposition to the deal.
“It wasn’t a good deal for the Chinese side. It was for Switzerland – it got US$40 billion. If Switzerland wants Syngenta back, I would convince ChemChina to sell it. But is there anybody at all in Switzerland who wants Syngenta back?”
Basel-based Syngenta was listed on the SIX Swiss Stock exchange when it was bought by ChemChina, so shareholders received the money from the deal that closed in 2017.
After the takeover spurred debate over foreign countries expanding in Switzerland, Swiss politicians are debating a measure in parliament that could require government approval of sales of Swiss companies to foreign entities.