Shanghai exchange suspends Syngenta’s China IPO
Syngenta Group’s planned $10 billion (CHF9.3 billion) initial public offering (IPO) in China has been temporarily suspended due to missing financial information from the agrichemical giant, the Shanghai Stock Exchange said on Monday.
State-owned ChemChina bought the Basel-based Swiss agriscience group Syngenta for $44 billion in 2017. ChemChina’s application to list on Shanghai’s STAR Market was accepted at the start of July and was widely expected to be the world’s largest flotation this year.
The STAR market suspended 57 applications on September 30, citing a lack of updated financial information. Under bourse rules, applicants must provide additional information if financial materials in applications are outdated.
“The application review has been temporarily paused”,
ChemChina is also considering a secondary listing for Syngenta that could take place less than a year after its Shanghai debut, with exchanges in Zurich, London and New York among the options being examined, sources told Reuters.
Foreign investment control system
The takeover of Syngenta in 2017 and airline catering business Gategroup by Chinese companies in 2016 sparked a reaction by the Swiss authorities and new rules.
In the future the takeover of Swiss companies by foreign state-owned or state-linked funds is to be better regulated. The government has laid down the broad outlines of a foreign investment control system. Concerned about the international trend of company takeovers, parliamentarians adopted a motion in March 2020 to protect the Swiss economy.
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