BASF is evaluating a bid for DuPont, according to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the situation. DuPont agreed to a $130-billion merger with Dow Chemical in December, a deal which will eventually lead to the companies’ splitting into three separate entities.
BASF has been considering a bid for DuPont since last year and has held talks with DuPont, although a formal offer has not been made, according to Bloomberg.
According to regulatory filings released earlier this week, DuPont CEO Ed Breen on 8 December, after details of the Dow deal were leaked, spoke with the chairman of a “large, publicly-traded company in the chemicals industry” which was interested in a potential deal with DuPont and proposed discussions about a business combination. That company had previously discussed acquiring DuPont’s ag business in a cash deal, according to the filings.
BASF – the second-largest global chemical enterprise by sales, after Sinopec, according to CW’s billion-dollar club ranking – would expand to about $103 billion in revenues if it acquired DuPont, easily grabbing the number-one spot.
A spokesperson for BASF declined to comment on the report.
At BASF’s results press conference last week, Bock said the company intends to continue running its agchems unit without a major transaction. BASF has been linked to ongoing consolidation in agchems, but Bock declined to comment on why the company did not move to acquire Syngenta, which will be bought by ChemChina, or connect further with current partner Monsanto.
By Vincent Valk
Source: Chemical Week
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