MOSCOW (
MRC) -- BASF SE is working with advisers and financing banks to examine the merits of making a counter bid for DuPont Co., the USD55 billion chemical company that agreed to a merger with Dow Chemical Co. in December, said
Bloomberg, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
The Ludwigshafen, Germany-based chemical producer hasn’t made a decision yet about proceeding with an offer, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. No formal approach has been made to DuPont, the people said.
BASF, which has been working with advisers since last year to explore a bid for DuPont, held talks with the U.S. company before it agreed to merge with Dow, said the people. Those talks didn’t progress, the people said.
BASF is the world’s third-largest producer of weed-killers, insecticides and other pesticides, after Syngenta AG and Bayer AG, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Buying DuPont would add to its agricultural chemical portfolio and give it the second-biggest producer of crop seeds, such as corn genetically modified to withstand insects and herbicides. Monsanto Co. is the largest seed company.
BASF has no seed business, so DuPont would fill an important gap in its agriculture business, said James Sheehan, an Atlanta-based analyst at Suntrust Robinson Humphrey Inc.
BASF Chief Executive Officer Kurt Bock said last month that he considered a deal in the field of agricultural chemicals amid China’s takeover of Syngenta and the merger of Dow and DuPont, before deciding to stay put.
DuPont discussed potential deals with multiple companies ahead of the Dec. 11 agreement with Dow, according to a March 1 regulatory filing by DowDuPont Inc., the name of the merged company. DuPont may be obligated to pay Dow a termination fee of USD1.9 billion if it breaks the deal, the filing shows.
The largest seed and pesticide makers have been discussing deals since Monsanto offered to buy Switzerland’s Syngenta nearly a year ago. Syngenta rebuffed Monsanto and in February agreed to be acquired by China National Chemical Co.
Meanwhile, Dow and DuPont’s merger of equals is the largest deal ever in the chemical industry, creating a company with combined market values of USD111 billion and assembling the world’s largest agriculture business. DowDuPont would be the world’s second-biggest chemical company after BASF.
As MRC
informed earlier, in the late December 2015 Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co. announced a merger to create three new highly-focused businesses.
MRC