Syngenta withdraws bid for China listing

The IPO, which would have valued the Chinese-owned company at $60 billion, has been postponed repeatedly since being proposed in 2021 due to unfavourable market conditions

Swiss agrichemicals and seeds group Syngenta on Friday withdrew its bid for a multi-billion dollar listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) during a recent period of weakness in the Chinese equity market.

The IPO, which would have valued the Chinese-owned company at $60 billion, has been postponed repeatedly since being proposed in 2021 due to unfavourable market conditions.

After careful consideration of industry environment and the firm's own development strategy, Syngenta Group has decided to withdraw its application for IPO on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the firm said on Friday.

Syngenta said it will look to restart the listing process either in China or on a different exchange, when conditions are right, as well as explore alternative sources of funding.

Market analysts have previously cited Hong Kong, Zurich and London as potential alternatives for a Syngenta listing.

The sudden chill 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 clampdown on any lapses.

During January-March 2024, money raised via China initial public offerings slumped two-thirds from a year earlier to just $2.4 billion, the smallest quarterly fundraising since the final quarter of 2018, and down 82% from a year earlier, according to preliminary LSEG data.

Executives of the company owned by Sinochem said as recently as last November that Syngenta planned to list in 2024. The partial floatation was expected to raise nearly $10 billion.

The Shanghai Exchange said in a filing that the bourse had terminated its review of Syngenta's IPO application after the company applied to withdraw it.

Weak demand in key markets like Brazil has put pressure on the firm's earnings.