Shell, BASF close to deal for sale of JV to Indian group for 4 bln eur - WSJ 05.03.2005, 11:26 PM
BOMBAY (AFX) - Royal Dutch/Shell Group and BASF AG of Germany are close to agreeing on the sale of their joint venture Basell NV to a consortium led by India's Haldia Petrochemicals for more than 4 bln eur, Asian Wall Street Journal reported on its website, citing people familiar with the matter.
A deal could be announced within the next few days, it cited sources as saying. But financing and other terms of the complex sale agreement, which covers a wide-ranging collection of operations around the world, are yet to be completed, and the deal still could fall through, the sources said.
Haldia is backed by two New York financiers: Chatterjee Group, an investment partnership run by Purnendu Chatterjee, a West Bengal native who has invested in Haldia and serves as deputy chairman of the Indian chemical concern; and Access Industries, which is run by Leonard Blavatnik, a Russian-born billionaire who made his fortune in the Russian oil industry, the newspaper noted.
The consortium beat out rival bids at first from private-equity funds and then a competing bid by Iran's National Petrochemical Co, the report said.
The Iranian company, a state-controlled firm, was a politically controversial candidate because a US embargo forbids Iran's control of US assets and the import of Iranian products into the US, it said.
In addition to selling its products to US customers, Basell has a plant in Louisiana. Despite complicated arrangements to separate the US plant from the business, Washington opposed any sale to the Iranians on diplomatic grounds, making a deal difficult for both Shell and BASF, the Journal cited sources as saying.
Haldia officials could not be reached for comment, it said, adding that Chatterjee did not return calls while an Access Industries official declined to comment.
Representatives of BASF and Shell were not available, the Journal said.
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