BASF/Shell to Sell Basell Unit for $7 Billion

Oil giant Shell and German chemicals firm BASF will put their Basell petrochemicals joint venture up for sale later this month with a price tag of up to 6 billion euros ($7.2 billion), the Financial Times reported on its website on Thursday.
Investment banks Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) and Lazard are preparing an offer memorandum for Basell that will go out to interested parties later this month, the report said.
The banks are understood to have received preliminary approaches from both trade and financial buyers, the FT added.
Last week, BASF said it would make a decision on Basell in the first half of 2005. Both BASF and Shell have said that options include selling their stakes or an initial public offering.
Basell had sales of 6 billion euros and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of more than 300 million euros last year.
A Shell spokesman in London declined to comment on the timing of any sale or on the value of Basell. – Yahoo Finance UK/Ireland.