US clears ChemChina, Syngenta deal

A U.S. national security panel has cleared ChemChina’s $43 billion takeover of Swiss pesticides and seeds group Syngenta, Reuters reports, boosting chances that the largest foreign acquisition ever by a Chinese company will go through. The decision removes significant uncertainty over the takeover of the world’s largest pesticides maker. Several U.S. lawmakers and groups representing farmers had expressed fears over a Chinese state-owned company being in a position to influence the U.S. food supply. The United States reviewed the deal because more than a quarter of the company’s seeds and crop protection revenue last year came from North America. The major regulatory hurdle the deal now has to clear is an antitrust review by the European Union.