Syngenta shares begin to recover as chief exec eases regulatory fears over ChemChina deal
ChemChina and Syngenta remain confident that their $43bn (£35bn) deal will close despite regulatory doubts, Swiss company’s chief executive has said.
Concerns around China’s biggest ever foreign acquisition arose this week after the European Commission said it had not been offered concessions by the companies by the 21 October deadline.
Syngenta’s share price fell nine per cent on the news yesterday, but made up some of that ground on Tuesday. At the time of writing, its shares were up two per cent.
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This revival came after Syngenta chief executive Erik Fyrwald told shareholders the companies remain “fully committed to the transaction and are confident of its closure”.
However, Fyrwald did put back the expected date of completion, from 2016 to the first quarter of 2017.
Reporting the company’s third-quarter results, he said: “The process of obtaining regulatory approvals is well underway, with [US regulator] CFIUS clearance and 11 antitrust approvals already received.
“In a context of industry consolidation, regulators in the EU and elsewhere have recently requested a large amount of additional information, and we now expect the regulatory process to extend into the first quarter of 2017.”
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A source with direct knowledge of the the process told Reuters that state-owned ChemChina is willing to offer more concessions to the European Union to force through the deal.
In addition to the ChemChina-Syngenta deal, Bayer has agreed a deal to acquire Monsanto, and DuPont and Dow Chemical have also agreed to merge.