Report: ChemChina Raises Its Takeover Offer For Syngenta

(RTTNews) - China National Chemical Corp. is said to raise its takeover offer for Swiss crop chemicals firm Syngenta (SYN), proposing a two-stage acquisition.

ChemChina, as the state-owned company is known, offered to buy 70 percent of Syngenta now, with an option to acquire the remaining 30 percent, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.

ChemChina offered about 470 Swiss francs per share for 70 percent of Syngenta. At that price, the company would have a market value of about 43.7 billion francs or $44 billion. ChemChina revised the proposal after its previous cash offer of 449 francs per share was deemed too low.

The reported noted that Syngenta will hold a board meeting before the end of the year to vote on the deal. While talks are advanced, no agreement has been reached and there's no guarantee a deal will be completed.

According to the report, the proposal would allow ChemChina to work with Syngenta to integrate the two businesses before assuming complete control of the Swiss company. During the discussions, ChemChina proposed a number of similarly structured deals, whereby it would acquire Syngenta in two stages.