Syngenta, the world's largest pesticide company, informed its investors on Tuesday that the planned $43 billion takeover by ChemChina has been extended to first half of 2017.

This means that the Swiss-based company will miss the original deadline that forecasted the deal will be sealed by end of this year.    

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The important announcement was made when the company revealed its third quarter performance on Tuesday.

"In a context of industry consolidation, regulators in the EU and elsewhere have recently requested a large amount of additional information and we now expect the regulatory process to extend into the first quarter of 2017," Chief Executive Erik Fyrwald said in a statement.

"ChemChina and Syngenta remain fully committed to the transaction and are confident of its closure," the company official added.

The assurance by Syngenta came a day after its shares were battered at Zurich stock exchange. Its shares lost more than nine percent to close at 397.50 Swiss francs after end of the Monday's trading.

The sharp fall in Syngenta stocks was apparently an adverse reaction to reports that EU's anti-trust authorities may subject the Syngenta-ChemChina deal to more stringent regulation.    

ChemChina reportedly failed to submit the so-called remedies document to anti-trust authorities within the original deadline of Oct. 21. As a result, the possibility of EU regulators opening a second phase of investigation seemed higher.

Reports noted that the next level of investigation will delay the multi-billion dollar deal for another five months.

Meanwhile, Fyrwald dismissed any suggestion that the deal has been complicated by talks of possible merger between ChemChina and Chinese peer Sinochem.

"We talk to ChemChina regularly on a range of issues, as you can imagine, and they have repeatedly assured us that they are not in any discussions about merging with Sinochem," Fyrwald told Reuters in a telephonic interview.

Analysts had expected that the EU would give a swift approval to Syngenta's takeover deal, given that the deal was approved by US regulators in August without any major conditions.  

The $43 billion dollar takeover deal of Syngenta by state owned ChemChina is the largest foreign direct investment by China till date.

TagsSyngenta AG, ChemChina Syngenta Deal, ChemChina, china