Agricultural giant Syngenta withdraws from listing on the Chinese market

Swiss agrochemicals and seeds giant Syngenta withdrew its request for a multibillion-dollar listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Friday amid a period of weakness in China's stock market, Reuters reports.

The initial public offering (IPO), which would have valued the Chinese-owned company at up to $60 billion, has been repeatedly postponed after being proposed in 2021 due to unfavorable market conditions.

"After careful analysis of the industry environment and the company's own development strategy, Syngenta Group has decided to withdraw its IPO application on the Shanghai Stock Exchange," the company announced.

Syngenta said it would seek to resume the listing process either in China or on another stock exchange when conditions are right, as well as explore alternative sources of financing.

The situation in China's IPO market, which was the world's largest in 2022 and 2023, comes after the securities watchdog, under new chairman Wu Qing, vowed to step up scrutiny of listing candidates and sanction any irregularities.

In the January-March 2024 period, sums raised by China's IPOs fell by two-thirds from a year earlier to just $2.4 billion, the weakest quarterly fundraising since 2018, according to preliminary data of LSEG.

Executives at the Sinochem-owned company said last November that Syngenta planned to list in 2024, and the partial listing was expected to raise about $10 billion.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange said it had ended its review of Syngenta's IPO application after the company requested its withdrawal.

According to Reuters, weak demand in key markets such as Brazil caused the company's earnings to fall. Syngenta's sales in the quarter to September 2023 fell 13% to $6.8 billion, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell 68% to $300 million. USD.

Syngenta was bought by China National Chemical Corp. (ChemChina) in 2017 for $43 billion. ChemChina has since been absorbed into Sinochem Holdings Corp.