Apollo may gain as LyondellBasell rejects Reliance's $14.5 billion bid: report
02 Mar 2010
US private equity firm Apollo Management is expected to buy a stake in LyondellBasell Industries AF after a creditor group led by it rejected an improved $14.5 billion offer by Reliance Industries for a majority stake in the bankrupt Dutch petrochemicals firm.
The New York Post citing people close to the developments said the move would help Apollo to merge LyondellBasell with its Hexion Specialty Chemicals.
Reliance had upped an earlier offer for the bankrupt petrochemicals major after the latter settled a dispute involving major creditors who financed the buy-out of Lyondell and a group of small creditors, including bondholders.
Basell AF, a unit of Len Blavatnik's Access Industries Holdings LLC, bought out Lyondell in a 2007 deal financed with $22 billion provided arranged by the creditors group.
Reliance raised the offer after the Rotterdam-based petrochemicals maker rejected an earlier offer of $13.5 billion. The Indian energy major had, in November, made an unsuccessful bid to acquire the ailing Dutch company for an undisclosed amount.
Apollo Management LP, led by Leon Black, had earlier backed a reorganisation of LyondellBasell that would have given the buyout firm an equity stake in the petrochemicals firm.