China National Chemical Corporation, better known as ChemChina, has pushed back a tender offer for Swiss agriculture company Syngenta. It just the latest delay for a deal that is going through an almost endless layer of approvals.
The company announced on Tuesday that it was extending the offer to purchase Syngenta until November 8, 2016. ChemChina had originally hoped to close the deal in May, but has delayed several times since then.
ChemChina has already got over what bankers thought could be a major hurdle. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a tough-to-please committee that has blocked several Chinese takeovers in the past, gave the deal the greenlight on August 22.
But the acquisition is still subject to anti-trust review by various regulators around the world. The European Commission, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), and competition authorities in Brazil, India, Australia and the US still have a chance to weigh-in on the deal.
The $43 billion buyout will make ChemChina one of the world’s biggest pesticides and agrochemicals supplier. It will be the biggest outbound acquisition ever made by a Chinese company.
The bidder can delay the settlement date up to four months if any conditions cannot be satisfied by the last day of the post-offer period. The deal could be postponed to mid-2017 if this occurs.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, UBS and Dyalco are the financial advisors for Syngenta.
China Citic Bank Corporation and HSBC are the financial advisors for ChemChina.
