Swiss chemicals company Basell Holdings BV's $9.6 billion
agreement
to buy U.S. peer Huntsman Corp. may signal that other chemical deals are
in the works, according to a research note from Jefferies & Co. analyst
Laurence Alexander. Basell’s purchase of Huntsman fits with a trend driving
industry deals: upgrading commodity chemical companies by buying typically
more profitable specialty chemical assets, according to a story in the Houston Chronicle. Therefore,
Jefferies’ top M&A candidates are specialty chemical companies: Hercules
Inc., Cytec Industries Inc. and the much smaller Omnova Solutions Inc. And the
possible acquirer might be none other than Basell. Access Industries, a
conglomerate run by Russian-born investor Leonard Blatnavik that owns
Basell, has already set its sights on additional targets. Last month, Access
took a more than
8%
stake in Lyondell Chemicals and bought the rights to increase that stake
to 15%. In a filing, Access divulged it might seek a merger between Lyondell
and Basell. —Matthew Wurtzel
See
Huntsman story from TheDeal.com
See
chemical M&A story from the Houston Chronicle
See
Lyondell story from Reuters
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