Deals
China’s 1.4 Billion Mouths Behind ChemChina’s Syngenta Pursuit
- ChemChina agrees to buy Syngenta for more than $43 billion
- China seeks to boost farm productivity to expand food output
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The logic behind what would be the biggest acquisition by a Chinese firm comes down to the growing gap between two numbers -- population and available agricultural land.
China has 21 percent of the world’s population with just 9 percent of its arable land, according to Jefferies Group LLC. That’s where China National Chemical Corp.’s purchase of Syngenta AG comes in. The Basel, Switzerland-based company’s position as the world’s largest pesticide maker and its yield-boosting genetically modified crops will help increase the amount of food China produces per acre and give it muscle to take on rivals including Monsanto Co.