Dow Chemical (Midland, Michigan / USA; www.dow.com) is moving closer to the sale of its styrenics business, as announced in August 2009 – see Plasteurope.com of 04.08.2009. Reports, which the US chemical group has declined to confirm, say bidders for the spin-off trading as Styron were asked to reconfirm their offers by 11 January. In November, executives told journalists that bids would be accepted up to the end of 2009, with a buyer to be chosen in the first quarter of 2010.

A number of private equity companies are believed to be among the bidders. In addition to the “usual suspects,” Bain Capital, TPG Capital and Apollo Management, along with Rhone, the plastics spin-off is said to have drawn attention from Asian strategic buyers such as South Korea’s Lotte Group (Seoul; www.lotte.co.kr), parent company of Honam Petrochemical (www.hpc.co.kr) and PET manufacturer KP Chemical (www.kpchem.co.kr/english).

Market reports have estimated that the business could fetch USD 1-2 bn. However, industry observers say the top end of this range may be out of reach and also that the business could be hard to leverage out of Dow due to the number of contracts with suppliers and customers both up- and downstream. Potential investors in styrenics have other choices. BASF’s (Ludwigshafen / Germany; www.basf.com) large operation, for example, is also up for sale – see Plasteurope.com of 26.06.2009.