GENEVA: Swiss agrochemicals giant Syngenta on Thursday moved to placate shareholders after it rejected a massive takeover bid by Monsanto, announcing it would sell its vegetable seed business and buy back $2 billion worth in shares.

Syngenta, which last week saw its share price plunge 18 per cent after US seed giant Monsanto finally dropped its campaign to buy it, said on Thursday it would take a series of measures to ‘accelerate shareholder value creation’.