By John Revill, Kane Wu and Oliver Hirt
ZURICH/HONG KONG, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Swiss-based seeds and agrochemicals company Syngenta Group plans to apply in the second quarter for an up to $10 billion listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and has hired banks to manage the IPO, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
The Basel-based company, controlled by Chinese state-owned Sinochem, aims to launch the offering in the fourth quarter, subject to market conditions, the sources said on condition of anonymity because the information was not yet public.
Reuters reported this month that Syngenta could sell up to 20% of its shares in the IPO, potentially one of the world’s biggest this year, but that the size and timing of the offering was not final and could change depending on market conditions.
Syngenta declined to comment on a possible timeline for the prospectus filing or when the initial public offering itself would take place.
“We will continue to assess our capital markets strategies based on market conditions and other relevant factors that are in the best interests of our shareholders,” a company spokesman said.
“As we always said, we intend to return to the capital market when the time is right.”
Syngenta has picked Chinese investment bank CICC and Goldman Sachs to lead the IPO, said one of the two sources and a third person close to the matter, adding that Bank of America, CITIC Securities and UBS have also been hired to work on the IPO.
Bank of America and UBS declined to comment. CICC, Goldman and CITIC Securities did not respond to requests for comment.
HONG KONG LISTINGS
The Syngenta offering will bolster Hong Kong’s position as a leading IPO market. Hong Kong’s stock exchange reported on Thursday a record profit for 2025 on buoyant trading activity and a rush of firms going public.
IPOs and secondary share sales in Hong Kong raised $287 billion for 119 companies. Of the offerings, 85 companies were from mainland China and they accounted for about 70% of the proceeds raised, according to data from the exchange and LSEG.
If Syngenta succeeds in raising $10 billion, the flotation would be the third biggest globally in the past five years, after Rivian Automotive in 2021 and LG Energy Solution in 2022, according to Dealogic data.
Two years ago, Syngenta scrapped an application for an IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, citing the industry environment and weakness in China’s equity market.
The company competes with U.S.-based Corteva and Germany’s BASF and Bayer in the $120 billion market for crop protection and seeds, which is growing around 2-3% per year.
The sector is going through major changes at the moment, with BASF planning to separate and list its agricultural unit, while Corteva is separating into two listed companies concentrating on seeds and pesticides.
(Reporting by John Revill, Kane Wu and Oliver Hirt; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee, David Goodman and Susan Fenton)
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