RIL gains 3% on LyondellBasell bid

Reliance finally ended with a gain of 3.3% at Rs 2,195. The counter clocked a volume of around 1.26 million shares as against its two-week daily average traded volume of around 818,688 shares on the BSE.
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(Updated at 1031 hrs)

Reliance Industries (RIL) has firmed up on news that it has made an estimated $10-12 billion offer for a controlling interest in LyondellBasell Industries.

Reliance is quoting at Rs 2,154, stronger by Rs 29 or 1.4%, on the BSE. The stock opened at Rs 2,145 and has touched a high of Rs 2,162 and a low of RS 2,134 thus far.

LyondellBasell is a $50.7 billion polymers, petrochemicals and fuels Dutch company owned by ProChemie GmbH, a joint venture of Access Industries and ProChemie Holding.

In January, LyondellBasell had voluntarily filed to reorganise its US operations and one of its European holding companies under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code to restructure the company’s debts. At the end of September, its liabilities were estimated at $22.24 billion and the asset base was $21.63 billion. Long-term debt was of the order of $18.37 billion.

The deal will make Reliance one of the largest petrochemical companies in the world. It will also be the second largest overseas acquisition by an Indian company, after Tata Steel bought Corus for $13 billion in 2007.