Syngenta's characteristics include, amongst other things:

The syndicate banks, led by Global Coordinators Credit Suisse First Boston and UBS Warburg intend to offer up to 4,500,000 Syngenta shares in the Global Secondary Offering. They will procure the shares offered in the Global Secondary Offering either by purchasing Syngenta shares in the open market or by exercising all or part of the option that will have been granted to the syndicate banks by certain Novartis subsidiaries and related entities.

Institutional bookbuilding for the Global Secondary Offering starts today, Monday, 30 October 2000 and is expected to end on Thursday, 9 November 2000. After the demerger of Novartis agribusiness and Zeneca agrochemicals from the remaining businesses of Novartis and AstraZeneca and their combination into Syngenta, the Syngenta shares and ADSs are expected to be listed on Monday, 13 November 2000 on four stock exchanges (SWX in Switzerland, LSE in London, NYSE in the US and OMX in Sweden).

US Federal Trade Commission approval of the required divestments and thus of the combination of Novartis agribusiness and Zeneca agrochemicals business is expected to be granted in the very near future. If the US Federal Trade Commission does not grant the approval by November 3, 2000, it is expected that new dates for the Global Secondary Offering and the listing of Syngenta will be announced on November 4, 2000.

As previously announced, following the completion of the distribution of Global Offering shares, Syngenta intends to implement in full in the first ten trading days the repurchase of up to 10% of its issued share capital, subject to market availability and all applicable regulations in the relevant jurisdictions. The share repurchase will be funded by Novartis and AstraZeneca. As a result, it will not impact Syngenta's net debt level, which is estimated to be approximately USD 3.2 billion after taking account of, amongst other things, proceeds of divestments. Assuming the maximum proposed share repurchase, this will reduce Syngenta's share equity by 10% from 112.6 million shares to 101.3 million shares.

Syngenta had pro forma sales of approximately USD 7.0 billion and an EBITDA of USD 1,175 million in 1999 after divestitures and excluding special charges. Its 1999 pro forma research and development investment was approximately USD 760 million.