Sinochem has made a conditional takeover approach for Australia's Nufarm, one of the world's largest “off-patent” agricultural chemical manufacturers, in the latest sign of China's interest in Australian assets.
Shares in Nufarm, which was the target of an aborted A$3bn (US$2.5bn) consortium bid led by China National Chemical Corporation in 2007, jumped 91 cents to A$10.75 on news of the “confidential, preliminary and incomplete” approach.
Nufarm cautioned that there was no certainty an agreement would be reached or an offer put to shareholders. It was responding to an Australian Securities Exchange price query after its shares rose from A$8.92 on Wednesday to close at A$9.84 on Thursday. Nurfarm has a market value of about A$2.4bn.