Syngenta shareholders finally know exactly where they stand. The uncertainty has shifted to those holding stock in its competitors.

ChemChina, a Chinese state-owned entity, will buy the Swiss agrochemicals business for $44bn in cash, or SFr475 per share (plus a dividend). Monsanto offered SFr433 per share last year, about half in stock. After three approaches, the US seeds-to-herbicides group finally gave up last August. Syngenta’s investors, unhappy that chief executive Mike Mack refused to engage with the bidder, sent him to graze in other pastures. In November, ChemChina put forward a SFr449 cash bid. Syngenta wisely held out for more.

ChemChina’s winning offer is not just higher and more liquid than Monsanto’s. The Chinese company’s business has little overlap with Syngenta herbicide and seeds lines. The risk of antitrust regulators in the US and elsewhere rejecting a Monsanto-Syngenta combination worried the market. Monsanto’s proposed answer — selling off Syngenta’s smaller seeds business — fit poorly with the Swiss company’s integrated approach.