The leading pesticide enterprise in Sichuan is set to change its controlling shareholder to the China Resources system, and the acquisition bids from Shudao Group and Sichuan Energy Investment have failed to materialize.

Having overcome numerous obstacles, the "China Resources Group" is set to take the controlling stake of glufosinate-ammonium leading enterprise.

On the evening of July 29, Lier Chemical (002258.SZ) and China Resources Shuanghe (600062.SH) simultaneously released announcements, stating that China Resources Shuanghe plans to acquire a total of 23.5% of Lier Chemical's shares held by Sichuan Jiuyuan Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jiuyuan Group") and Sichuan Chemical Materials Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chemical Materials Technology") by paying cash. The transfer price of the target shares in this transaction is 30.07 yuan per share, and the total transfer consideration is 5.656 billion yuan.

Calculated based on the closing price of Lier Chemical on July 29 (14.71 yuan per share), this means China Resources Shuanghe will obtain the controlling stake at a premium of 104.42%.

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This transaction is expected to constitute a major asset restructuring. After the transaction is completed, the controlling shareholder of Lier Chemical will be changed to China Resources Shuanghe, and the actual controller of Lier Chemical will be changed to China Resources Co., Ltd.

Regarding the reasons and purposes of the above equity change, Jiuyuan Group and Chemical Materials Technology stated that this is a specific measure to implement the requirements of the central government and the China Academy of Engineering Physics (hereinafter referred to as "CAEP") on focusing on main responsibilities and core businesses and deepening the reform of state-owned enterprises.

China Resources Shuanghe stated that through this transaction, it can quickly realize the industrialization of synthetic biotechnology products. Lier Chemical can rely on its leading synthetic biotechnology and enterprise management experience to improve product competitiveness and market position. The two parties have strong business synergy. This transaction will help China Resources Shuanghe build a second growth curve for synthetic biology and support the development of a leading benchmark enterprise in the synthetic biology sector.

"This transaction is an inevitable choice for the two parties at the current stage of strategic transformation and development. It can maximize the value of collaborative enterprise development from aspects including stimulating the vitality of R&D and innovation organizations, enhancing the core competitiveness of traditional manufacturing, and improving the global marketing network, so as to maximize the return on value for shareholders of both parties." China Resources Shuanghe noted.

As the news came out, on July 30, Lier Chemical opened higher and quickly rose to the daily limit, closing at 16.18 yuan per share, up 9.99%; however, China Resources Shuanghe dived rapidly after touching the daily limit during the call auction, fluctuated below the opening reference price throughout the day, and finally closed at 16.23 yuan per share, down 3.91%.

It is worth noting that the announcement reminds that this equity change still needs to go through relevant approval procedures before implementation, including but not limited to: approval for this transaction from CAEP, the Ministry of Finance, the shareholders' meeting of the transaction counterparty, and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council; the transaction passing the anti-monopoly review of undertakings concentration by the State Administration for Market Regulation; the Shenzhen Stock Exchange issuing a confirmation opinion on matters related to this transaction.

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According to the official website, Lier Chemical was founded in 1993, with its headquarters located in Mianyang, Sichuan. It is mainly engaged in the R&D, production and sales of pesticide active ingredients and formulation products. It has built seven production bases and owns a relatively complete industrial chain covering all production links of chemical raw materials, intermediates, active ingredients and formulations. Its products are exported to more than 30 countries and regions including the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Australia, and it has established long-term and stable strategic cooperative relations with many top international agrochemical enterprises in the industry such as BASF and Corteva from the United States.

With strong technical strength, Lier Chemical has become the world's second enterprise after Dow of the United States that has successfully mastered the integrated catalytic chlorination technology for pyridine compounds. It is the largest domestic manufacturer of chlorinated pyridine pesticide active ingredients and formulations, and also a large-scale domestic producer of glufosinate-ammonium and glufosinate-P active ingredients.

As early as March 2017, there were signs that Lier Chemical would change its controlling owner. At that time, Lier Chemical announced that in accordance with relevant national policies and combined with its actual situation, its actual controller CAEP was planning the equity change of Jiuyuan Group, which might lead to the change of the company's actual controller.

However, in the following more than 9 years, Lier Chemical issued two relevant announcements, but the equity change of Jiuyuan Group did not make substantial progress. It still firmly held the position of controlling shareholder, and the actual controller did not change.

While waiting for the "new owner", the overall performance of Lier Chemical showed a growth trend, and in 2022, it achieved its first and only breakthrough in the 10-billion-yuan revenue mark. Its 2025 revenue reached 9.008 billion yuan, representing a nearly threefold revenue increase over 9 years; however, its attributable net profit fluctuated greatly. After reaching a record high of 1.812 billion yuan in 2022, it dropped rapidly, and the profit in 2025 was only 479 million yuan, just a quarter of its peak value.

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The 9-year-long suspense of "changing controlling owner" of Lier Chemical has finally been resolved through the voluntary equity transfer of Jiuyuan Group.

On November 14, 2025, Lier Chemical received a notice from Jiuyuan Group, which, together with its concerted actor and the company's third-largest shareholder Chemical Materials Technology, planned to transfer part of Lier Chemical's equity through public solicitation and transfer. In other words, Jiuyuan Group intended to sell the equity at a "satisfactory price".

The "prospective new owner" China Resources Shuanghe is the chemical drug business platform of China Resources Group in the big health sector. Its main business covers new drug R&D, formulation production, pharmaceutical sales, pharmaceutical equipment and active pharmaceutical ingredient production, etc. Its economic strength, competitive vitality and sustainable development capacity rank among the top domestic pharmaceutical companies. Since it began to deploy in the biomanufacturing field in 2022, the Synthetic Biology Research Institute of China Resources Shuanghe has built seven technology platforms, focusing on four major sectors: medicine, health-oriented new food, agricultural and veterinary drugs, and new materials, and has made breakthroughs in a number of key technologies, with multiple products about to be launched to the market.

In the field of synthetic biological pesticides, China Resources Shuanghe has reserved a number of products including insecticides, fungicides and biostimulants, but lacks an industrialization implementation platform. The commercialization of products in this sector faces many challenges such as business qualifications, R&D registration, production and manufacturing, sales channels, industry status and talent teams.

At this stage, for China Resources Shuanghe, quickly obtaining relevant qualifications through strategic mergers and acquisitions is an effective way to rapidly expand its synthetic biology business.

On May 20, 2026, after the Ministry of Finance had approved the above-mentioned public solicitation and transfer in principle, Lier Chemical quickly released an announcement to look for a new controlling shareholder willing to take over its 23.5% equity, and received applications from 10 intended transferees in less than a month, among which China Resources Shuanghe was one of the active applicants.

After submitting the application materials, paying the application deposit, and going through three weeks of qualification review and scheme evaluation, China Resources Shuanghe, as a member of the central state-owned enterprise "China Resources System", defeated two Sichuan state-owned enterprises — Shudao Investment Group Co., Ltd. and Sichuan Energy Development Group Co., Ltd., and became the first-ranked intended transferee in the public solicitation and transfer process.

Wind data shows that since 2023, the revenue of China Resources Shuanghe has steadily exceeded 10 billion yuan, and its attributable net profit has also increased year by year, reaching 1.647 billion yuan by 2025, a record high.

However, choosing to make such a large acquisition at this time may sharply increase the capital pressure of China Resources Shuanghe.

The announcement shows that the capital for this acquisition comes from self-owned funds or self-raised funds, and China Resources Shuanghe promises that in this cash acquisition of Lier Chemical's shares, the proportion of self-owned funds will not be less than 50%.

However, since 2023, the monetary funds of China Resources Shuanghe have decreased, from 3.457 billion yuan at the end of 2023 to 2.57 billion yuan at the end of March 2026.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Times Finance APP" (ID: tf-app), written by Zhou Li, and published with authorization from 36Kr.