According to sources, the oil company Abu Dhabi National Oil (Adnoc) is considering purchasing the BASF subsidiary Wintershall DEA.
The company could be valued at more than ten billion euros, the Bloomberg news agency reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Almost a month ago, the German chemical company’s chief financial officer, Dirk Elvermann, reiterated the goal of separating from the 72.7 percent stake in the oil and gas company. Wintershall DEA wants to legally separate its Russia-related businesses by mid-2024. BASF wants to monetize the non-Russian part. The rest of the company is in the hands of the investment company Letterone.
Last year, BASF incurred a loss of 627 million euros due to billions in depreciation on its subsidiary Wintershall DEA. In January, Wintershall DEA announced the end of its business in Russia, which recently accounted for 50 percent of total production. The Russian part of the subsidiary had already been completely written off, Elvermann said. The company could get some of the money back from the state, among other things.
The manager referred to significant government investment guarantees in the lower billion range. However, the associated claims are currently not shown as receivables in BASF’s balance sheet. According to the news agency, another interested party for Wintershall DEA is the British oil company Harbor Energy. Both he and Adnoc did not want to comment, the report continued. BASF and Wintershall DEA could not initially be reached.
Adnoc, controlled by Abu Dhabi, is currently trying to take over the German chemical company Covestro. There was talk in the media in the summer that Adnoc had informally promised 60 euros per share, which would value Covestro at 11.6 billion euros. It was only in September that the company announced that it was talking to Adnoc – the share price then rose to around 54 euros, after the shares had cost less than 40 euros in mid-June. Since the announcement in September there has been largely silence from the outside world, and a little takeover fantasy has escaped from the course. On Thursday the shares went out of trading at 47.65 euros. The increase since the beginning of the year is a good 30 percent.
Adnoc is also negotiating a merger of the chemical companies Borealis and Borouge with the Austrian oil and gas group OMV. As Bloomberg recently reported, citing insiders, a merger could create a chemicals and plastics company with a market value of more than 30 billion US dollars (27.5 billion euros). Borealis, which is based in Vienna, is 75 percent owned by OMV, the rest is owned by Adnoc. Borouge from Abu Dhabi, which is also listed, is itself a joint venture between Adnoc and Borealis and has a market value of $22 billion.
In after-hours Tradegate trading, BASF shares temporarily rose 1.74 percent to 44.32 euros.
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NEW YORK (dpa-AFX)
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