(Yicai Global) March 29 -- The listing hearing for Syngenta’s planned CNY65 billion (USD9.4 billion) initial public offering in Shanghai, the Chinese mainland’s biggest in 13 years, was called off.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange announced late yesterday that the review hearing, scheduled for today, had been canceled. No explanation was given, nor any details about what the next steps are.

Senior market sources said it was possible that due to the large size of the offering, regulators may halt the IPO in order to preserve market stability, China Securities News reported today.

“Now is the final critical stage of the implementation of the comprehensive registration system in the A-shares market, and everyone is quite concerned,” the report quoted a market veteran as saying.

“When Syngenta announced the meeting, its issuance scale also attracted market attention, which put some pressure on investor expectations,” the person said.

According to the IPO prospectus, Syngenta intends to raise CNY65 billion, which would be a record high for the Star Market, Shanghai’s science and technology innovation board.

Net profit at Syngenta, a Switzerland-based wholly owned unit of Chinese conglomerate Sinochem, reached CNY7.9 billion (USD1.15 billion) last year on operating income of CNY224.8 billion (USD32.6 billion).

The company has said first-quarter would not exceed CNY66.3 billion, an increase of about 17 percent from a year earlier. Net profit attributable to the parent company was likely CNY5.7 billion, up 6.4 percent.

Editor: Tom Litting