BEIJING -- U.S. and European regulators have cleared a Chinese conglomerate's proposed $43 billion acquisition of Swiss agribusiness giant Syngenta AG on condition it sells some businesses to satisfy anti-monopoly objections.
The Federal Trade Commission's announcement comes alongside the approval by European regulators of the purchase by state-owned China National Chemical Corp. It would be China's biggest foreign acquisition to date.
China National Chemical Corp., also known as ChemChina, agreed to sell businesses that make a specific herbicide, an insecticide and a fungicide whose combined market shares with Syngenta would harm competition, the FTC and European Commission said.
"ChemChina has offered significant remedies, which fully address our competition concerns. This has allowed us to approve the transaction," Margrethe Vestager, the EU's antitrust commissioner, said Wednesday.
Chinese companies are engaged in a multibillion-dollar global buying spree to acquire technology and brands to improve their competitive edge as explosive growth in their home economy slows.
The global industry that supplies farm chemicals, biotechnology and other inputs is in the midst of a shake-up as tumbling commodity prices squeeze spending by farmers.
The ChemChina takeover, announced a year ago, is one of a trio of deals that would reshape the global agrochemicals industry. Dow Chemical Co.'s $77 billion bid to merge with DuPont Co. cleared its biggest hurdle last week when it won EU approval with hefty concessions. Bayer AG still needs approval for its purchase of Monsanto Co. The combined transactions would whittle six industry players to three behemoths: one American, one German and one Chinese.
A U.S. government national security panel approved the ChemChina-Syngenta tie-up in August despite complaints by some legislators who cited the potential for "risks to our food system."
ChemChina subsidiary Adama Agricultural Solutions Ltd. agreed to sell businesses in the United States that produce the herbicide paraquat, the insecticide abamectin and the fungicide chlorothalonil to American Vanguard Corp. and its affiliate Amvac Chemical Corp.
The Federal Trade Commission said Syngenta owns branded versions of all three chemicals, while Adama is the No. 1 or 2 supplier of generic versions in the United States.
ChemChina has also agreed to sell significant parts of its European operations in pesticides and plant-growth-regulation products.
ChemChina Chairman Ren Jianxin has said he hopes to expand Syngenta's presence in China and other emerging markets.
Ren is China's most aggressive global deal-maker and has spent more than $60 billion on acquisitions since 2010. They include Italian tire brand Pirelli, Norwegian chemical supplier Elkem and KraussMaffei, a German industrial machinery maker.
Almost all proposed Chinese acquisitions of U.S. assets have been approved by regulators. Still, mergers consultants say the prospect of undergoing a security review has put off some potential buyers, making acquisitions in Europe and other markets look more attractive.
Information for this article was contributed by Aoife White and David McLaughlin of Bloomberg News.
Business on 04/06/2017