Chinese Ambassador Says ChemChina's Syngenta Purchase Was a Mistake

(Bloomberg) -- China's ambassador to Switzerland said ChemChina's acquisition of Syngenta was a mistake and he's prepared to tell the state-owned enterprise to sell the pesticide maker.

Chinese investors have faced media criticism in Switzerland that has deterred investment in the country, Ambassador Geng Wenbing said in an interview with the Zurich-based Tages-Anzeiger newspaper on Saturday. Switzerland's government has said a law to limit foreign takeovers of domestic companies isn't required.

“If Switzerland wants to have Syngenta back, I will convince ChemChina to sell the company again,” Geng was quoted. “If I had become ambassador here a year earlier, the takeover wouldn't have happened. It wasn't a good deal for the Chinese side.”

China National Chemical Corp. acquired Syngenta in a $43 billion deal in 2016.

Neither ChemChina nor Syngenta immediately responded to calls and emails seeking comment outside of regular business hours. A phone call to the Chinese Embassy in Bern went direct to an answering machine.

--With assistance from Sarah Chen.

To contact the reporter on this story: Catherine Bosley in Zurich at cbosley1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jan Dahinten at jdahinten@bloomberg.net, Paul Richardson, Srinivasan Sivabalan

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