Dutch chemicals company Basell said Tuesday it would buy U.S. competitor Lyondell Chemical Co. for $12.1 billion in cash, creating a global powerhouse and dwarfing Basell’s recently failed offer for Huntsman.
Basell said it would pay $48 per share in cash for Lyondell, a 20 percent premium to Lyondell’s closing share price on Monday. Lyondell had 252.9 million shares outstanding as of March 31. The two companies pegged the total value of the deal, including debt, at $19 billion.
Just last week, Basell walked away from a $5.6 billion deal to buy chemicals maker Huntsman Corp. after being outbid at the last minute by private equity firm Apollo Management LP.
The combined Lyondell-Basell would have annual revenue of more than $34 billion and more than 15,000 employees around the world.
Basell is owned by industrialist Len Blavatnik’s U.S.-based Access Industries.