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Abu Dhabi's IPIC eyes Bayer unit

Abu Dhabi, November 18, 2009

Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) is in takeover talks with five companies including Bayer's MaterialScience division, IPIC managing director Khadem Al-Qubaisi was quoted as saying.

IPIC was in talks with four other European and US chemical makers, and expects to close a European acquisition by the first quarter of 2010, the online edition of trade publication ICIS reported him saying on Tuesday.

'It's a big deal. We're looking to buy a very big petrochemical company in Europe. It's in petrochemicals and specialities also. Bayer MaterialScience is one of the companies we've been talking to,' Al Qubaisi was quoted as saying by ICIS.

A Bayer spokesman told Reuters the company would not comment on 'market speculation'.
   

IPIC was not immediately available.
   

Bayer's shares closed up 2.1 percent at 53.29 euros -- after touching a 14-month high of 53.60 euros -- amid heavy volumes.
 The shares had been down slightly before the report was published.
   

On Monday IPIC's non-energy investment vehicle Aabar Investments, which Al Qubaisi chairs, teamed up with German carmaker Daimler to buy a majority stake in Formula One champions Brawn GP.

Al Qubaisi told Reuters that Aabar -- already Daimler's biggest shareholder with a 9.1 percent stake -- was interested in boosting its Daimler stake.

Bayer's unprofitable MaterialScience unit is the world's largest maker of chemicals for padding and insulation foams and of plastics used in sports goggles, DVDs and car lights. It accounted for 24 percent of Bayer's nine-month sales.

Its rivals include BASF and Dow Chemical.
   

One of the few remaining listed companies that combine chemicals and pharmaceuticals, Bayer has stressed its reliance on its medicines and farming pesticides units -- largely unscathed by the economic crisis. Its plastics unit was drawn into the maelstrom that has also gripped major chemicals peers.

Outgoing chief executive Werner Wenning had championed Bayer's hybrid structure, but conceded that synergies played little or no role in keeping the Healthcare, MaterialScience and CropScience divisions together.
   

Bayer in September appointed the head of US lab equipment maker Thermo Fisher Scientific, Marijn Dekkers, as CEO from October 2010 as part of a management overhaul that analysts said would likely focus the group more sharply on healthcare. - Reuters




Tags: abu dhabi | Bayer |

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