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ZURICH (Reuters) - ChemChina [CNCC.UL] has won around 82 percent support from Syngenta shareholders for its $43 billion takeover of the Swiss pesticides and seeds group, China’s biggest foreign acquisition to date, the two companies said on Wednesday.

Definitive interim results of the tender showed around 82.2 percent of Syngenta shares and depository receipts had been offered, slightly above the level the partners had announced last week when ChemChina clinched the deal.

An additional acceptance period starts on Thursday.

The takeover announced in February 2016 was prompted by China’s desire to use Syngenta’s portfolio of top-tier chemicals and patent-protected seeds to improve domestic agricultural output.