The specific breakdown of the funding package has yet to be decided, but about $13 billion will be taken on by Syngenta as non-recourse debt, or debt that is not guaranteed by the parent company, with the remainder taken at the ChemChina level on a recourse basis, LPC said.

ChemChina wants Syngenta to keep its investment grade rating, so it will cap the loans for the Swiss firm.

China CITIC Bank International, a unit of China CITIC Bank Corp Ltd, is seen leading the $30 billion recourse debt, while HSBC would lead the $13 billion non-recourse lending, LPC reported.

The $30 billion debt would be split into a bridge loan of up to $10 billion and a $20 billion term loan, LPC added, with ChemChina seeking partners and equity investors to repay the bridge loan.

China CITIC Bank International and HSBC advised ChemChina on the deal, while Syngenta was advised by Dyalco, the one-man business of former Goldman Sachs investment banking co-chairman Gordon Dyal, alongside JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and UBS.

ChemChina and HSBC declined to comment on the funding plan, while China CITIC Bank International didn't immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.

Advisors on the takeover stand to earn $166 million in fees, according to estimates from Thomson Reuters and Freeman Consulting.

(Reporting by Prakash Chakravarti of LPC; Additional reporting by Carol Zhong, Yan Jiang and Chien Mi Wong in Hong Kong and Alasdair Reilly of LPC in London and Matthew Miller in Beijing; Writing by Elzio Barreto; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Lincoln Feast)

By Prakash Chakravarti