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Explainer | What is Syngenta and why is it set to be this year’s biggest initial public offering?
- Offering is expected to be the biggest ever on Shanghai’s Star Market, raising up to US$10 billion
- Listing comes four years after it was acquired by ChemChina for US$43 billion in the largest foreign takeover by a Chinese firm
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Syngenta Group, the Swiss agrichemicals giant owned by state-backed China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina), is going public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Nasdaq-like Star Market in a transaction that could value it at US$60 billion, including debt.
The company, which is based in Basel, expects to raise up to US$10 billion in what could be the biggest initial public offering globally this year, outpacing the US$6.2 billion raised by Chinese video-sharing platform Kuaishou Technology in its Hong Kong offering in February, the US$8.4 billion raised by China Telecom in Shanghai this month and China Mobile’s planned US$8.6 billion IPO later this year.
ChemChina’s US$43 billion acquisition of Syngenta in 2017 remains the largest takeover of a foreign company by a Chinese firm and followed Syngenta publicly rejecting an offer two years earlier by Monsanto on potential regulatory concerns.
Since that deal, Syngenta has expanded its portfolio to include the Israeli crop protection company Adama and the agricultural businesses of ChemChina and state-owned Sinochem Group. That was ahead of a separate merger between ChemChina and Sinochem that was approved by regulators in April.
Here’s what you need to know about Syngenta, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of seeds and crop protection chemicals:
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Chinese farmers fight desertification in Gobi Desert
Chinese farmers fight desertification in Gobi Desert
What is Syngenta?
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