The China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina) and Syngenta AG, the Swiss producer of pesticides and seeds, have proposed minor concessions to the EU competition authority to address concerns about its more than 43 billion dollar planned merger, sources told Reuters.
A source close to the deal said it was unlikely that ChemChina would have to sell its Adama Agricultural Solutions Ltd. unit. Discussions are now focused on addressing the concerns regarding specific products, some of which could be owned by Adama.
The source said that the sale of total assets would amount to less than 500 million dollars.
"It's about individual products with scarce competition," he said, adding that some of these products were valued at tens of millions of dollars.
Another source said that, in his opinion, the divestments were very small.
The website of the European Commission (EC) has some commitments filed on January 9, which usually mean that the parties have proposals to find solutions, such as the pricing of asset sales or of specific products. He did not elaborate on the nature of those commitments.
"Syngenta confirms that the solutions related to the agreement with ChemChina have been presented to the EC. We won't make any further comments," said Syngenta's spokesman. "ChemChina and Syngenta continue to be fully committed to the merger and are confident they will achieve it."
A spokesman for ChemChina told Reuters that the details of the proposals to address regulatory concerns were confidential.
Source: Reuters