ChemChina-Owned Syngenta Targets $10 Billion in Shanghai IPO

(Bloomberg) -- Syngenta Group, the Swiss seed and fertilizer business owned by China National Chemical Corp., is targeting to raise 65 billion yuan ($10 billion) in a Shanghai listing that could become the world's largest initial public offering this year.

Syngenta aims to list on Shanghai's Nasdaq-style Star Board, it said in a prospectus published on the stock exchange website Friday. It plans to sell as many as 2.79 billion new shares in the IPO, equivalent to a 20% stake in the company, according to the filing.

China International Capital Corp. and BOC International Holdings Ltd. are sponsors of the planned share sale, Syngenta said. Citic Securities Co. is also working on the deal.

An IPO would turn a new page for Syngenta, which went through a reorganization after ChemChina acquired the company for $43 billion in 2017, clinching China's biggest foreign takeover to date. Syngenta Group incorporated other ChemChina agricultural units including Adama Ltd. and the agriculture business of Chinese conglomerate Sinochem Corp. last year.

The listing is also a nod to China's self-sufficiency drive in food, with policy makers vowing to accelerate innovation in the seed industry under their latest five-year plan. To produce the Chinese staple foods of pork and poultry, a large amount of feed is essential. Without improving development, China would have to rely on seeds and feed grains imported from abroad.

Once wary of genetically modified crops where Syngenta has an edge, China has begun to loosen restrictions amid growing concerns about food security. GM feed grains are on the agenda for commercial production, and some strains of corn and soy for animal feed have already been approved by officials this year.