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Agrochemical giant Syngenta Group opens process for Shanghai IPO
CGTN
A pedestrian carrying an umbrella walks past a company logo sign outside Syngenta AG's headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, February 3, 2016. /CFP

A pedestrian carrying an umbrella walks past a company logo sign outside Syngenta AG's headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, February 3, 2016. /CFP

Agrochemical maker Syngenta Group kick-started the pre-listing "tutoring" process with Chinese investment banks ahead of an initial public offering (IPO) on the STAR Market of Shanghai Stock Exchanges, showed an online statement of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on Monday. 

Syngenta Group, owned by ChinaChem, was incorporated in Shanghai in 2019, encompassing the fertilizer and seed business of Sinochem, Israel-rooted agricultural solutions firm ADAMA and Swiss Syngenta AG, which was acquired by ChinaChem for $43 billion in 2017. 

The tutoring includes bankers coaching companies' executives on IPO-related issues and reviewing equity structure and property relations.

The IPO would value Syngenta at around $60 billion including debt, or $50 billion without, Reuters reported on Monday citing sources. The global leading pesticide and seeds maker recorded $23.1 billion in sales last year.

If listed, the company would mark the first-ever European giant listing on the STAR Market, which was created for innovative Chinese startups to trade publicly in 2019, and the historic biggest IPO in the agrochemical industry.

A Syngenta spokesperson said the firm plans to complete the IPO by the end of the first half of 2022. But an actual listing application "would require a formal submission and be subject to approvals from relevant regulators," Syngenta said in a statement. 

Syngenta Group's roots go back more than 250 years in Switzerland, and today it operates in more than 100 countries, according to the company statement. 

The group ranked first in the crop protection industry and third in the seeds industry worldwide in 2019; it is also a leading player in the digital-agricultural domain, the CSRC statement said. 

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