China is buying foreign firms at a record rate

Syngenta’s board recommended the offer of $465 a share, plus a special dividend, to its shareholders, saying “the proposed transaction respects the interests of all stakeholders”.

He soon began to take control of fledgling state-owned chemical factories across China, and soon developed the company into a powerhouse.

ChemChina last month bought German machinery maker KraussMaffei for about $1bn (£700m) and has taken a 12% stake in Swiss energy trader Mercuria. Last year it spent $8.98 billion to buy Italian tyre maker Pirelli, a deal that FinanceAsia named M&A of the year.

Syngenta previously rebuffed the unsolicited advances of US seed giant Monsanto, which past year offered as much as $47 billion for the company.

In 2012, CFIUS stopped a small Chinese company, Ralls Corp, from buying a wind farm in OR because the farm was near a training site used to test unmanned drones.

China, the world’s largest agricultural market, is looking for ways to secure food supply for its population.

ChemChina plans to keep Syngenta’s management team, including John Ramsay, the chief executive.

Syngenta, which specialises in producing pesticides and genetically modified seeds, had always been courted by several larger companies for a takeover – most notably Monsanto.

The state-owned company, also known as ChemChina, offered Syngenta a cash offer worth $US465 a share on Wednesday, approximately 20 per cent higher than the stock’s last close.

This year’s tally is on pace to exceed last year’s record US$123.9 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

In a press release, the firms say a Swiss and USA tender offer will commence in the coming weeks. It also helped ChemChina navigate an accelerated due diligence process when it had less than a month to strike a final deal after receiving a nod from Syngenta’s board to pursue negotiations in early January, the source added.

Syngenta said its existing management will continue to run the company, which will remain headquartered in Switzerland.

Meanwhile, a global glut of corn and soybeans has depressed grain prices for the past three years, prompting USA farmers to reduce spending on everything from equipment to seeds and pesticides.

Given other mergers in agricultural chemicals, such as DuPont’s and Dow Chemical Co’s agreement to combine, Syngenta Chairman Michel Demare recently conceded that “going it alone is hardly possible”, given what shareholders were expecting.

Syngenta was advised by Dyalco, the one-man business of former Goldman Sachs M&A head Gordon Dyal, alongside JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and UBS while HSBC and China CITIC Bank International advised ChemChina.