The Switzerland-headquartered company could allocate about 30 billion yuan worth of the offering to strategic investors, the people said. It planned to sell as many as 2.79 billion new shares in the IPO, equivalent to a 20% stake, according to a prospectus filed last year.
Deliberations are ongoing and details of the IPO including size and timeline could still change, the people said. A representative for Syngenta declined to comment.
At US$10 billion ($13.87 billion), Syngenta’s listing would rank among the world’s biggest IPOs this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Battery maker LG Energy Solution raised about US$10.7 billion in January in South Korea’s largest ever first-time share sale, while Dubai Electricity & Water Authority gathered US$6.1 billion in its March offering.
Mega-IPOs still to come include Volkswagen AG, which has chosen lead banks for its blockbuster listing of iconic sports-car maker Porsche, Bloomberg News reported earlier this year. The listing could value Porsche at as much as 90 billion euros ($130.72 billion), people familiar with the matter have said.
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Syngenta was reorganized after China National Chemical, or ChemChina as it is known, acquired the company for US$43 billion in 2017, clinching China’s biggest foreign takeover to date. It has since incorporated other ChemChina agricultural units including Adama Ltd. and the agriculture business of state-owned conglomerate Sinochem Corp.
The company updated the financial disclosures for its IPO application on March 31, according to the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s website. The bourse briefly suspended Syngenta’s application to join the Star Board last year, pending an update to information about its earnings. The approval process resumed in October.
China International Capital Corp. and BOC International Holdings Ltd. are sponsors of the planned share sale. Citic Securities Co. is also working on the deal.
