MUMBAI: Reliance Industries (RIL) is on the verge of losing its bid for bankrupt petrochemical company LyondellBasell, as it baulks at rising
The bid by the nation’s largest private sector company, which was raised 21% to about $14.5 billion from the initial $12 billion in November, may not be acceptable to creditors who are leaning towards the revival plan proposed by the current management, two people familiar with the matter said.
“It is proving to be expensive,” said a person close to the deal preferring anonymity. “Lyondell’s reorganisation plan to be filed with the US bankruptcy court in Manhattan on Monday will influence the final decision,” the person added. The plan may be filed midnight India time. An RIL spokesperson declined comment.
Lyondell’s creditors, led by buyout firm Apollo Management, is set to reject the plan by RIL in Monday’s proposal, the New York Post reported on its website. The plan to be filed is set to favour the merger of Lyondell with Hexion Specialty Chemicals controlled by Apollo, the report said.
RIL has raised about $2 billion selling its own shares from the vault between November and now to possibly bid for Lyondell. It still has shares worth about $7 billion for which it has not publicly spelt out a strategy. RIL has time to raise its bid. But given its past record of seeking value in all its purchases, it may not raise the bid. The company had said in November that it was interested in buying a controlling stake in Lyondell, but it never officially disclosed how much it was valuing the target at.
The treasury stocks were created eight years ago, following the merger of Reliance Petroleum, a subsidiary, with RIL. While holdings of promoter companies get cancelled in these circumstances normally, RIL chose to retain them in a trust which are being sold now.
“Reliance is a value buyer,” the New York Post report quoted Telly Zachariades, partner of the Valence Group investment bank, as saying. “He’s (Mukesh Ambani) is not the kind of person to get caught up in deal frenzy.”
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