NEW YORK/LUDWIGSHAFEN - After Covestro, the BASF subsidiary Wintershall Dea is now apparently also in the sights of the oil company Abu Dhabi National Oil (Adnoc). According to circles, the company could be valued at more than ten billion euros, as the Bloomberg news agency reported the day before. Another interested party is the British oil company Harbour Energy.

The Ludwigshafen-based chemical company has wanted to divest its oil and gas subsidiary for some time. When asked by dpa-AFX on Friday, a BASF spokesperson said that the company does not comment on market rumors. The news was well received on the stock exchange in the morning, with BASF shares climbing by almost two percent at the top of the Dax in the morning.

The speculation about interest from Arab and European companies is not entirely new; rumors were already circulating months ago. In its report, Bloomberg referred to information from people familiar with the matter. Adnoc and Harbour Energy declined to comment, it added.

BASF holds a 72.7 percent stake in Wintershall Dea. The DAX-listed company had already decided to exit in 2017, well before the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine - which in fact increased the pressure to divest: last year, BASF incurred a loss of 627 million euros due to billions of euros in write-downs on Wintershall Dea. In January, the oil and gas subsidiary then announced the end of its business in Russia, which most recently accounted for 50 percent of total production.

This year, Wintershall Dea was also hit by the fall in oil and gas prices. The company reduced the size of its Executive Board and initiated a cost-cutting program, with around 500 jobs to be cut worldwide, the majority in Germany. There was also talk of possible partial sales in press reports.

In addition to a sale, BASF had originally also put forward the possibility of a boron exit as an option for Wintershall Gea. Nothing has changed in this respect to date, the company spokesperson emphasized. "These two options are available". However, due to the weak market environment and the uncertain economic outlook, according to a report in the "Handelsblatt" newspaper in September, an IPO was recently considered less and less likely in financial circles.

Just under a month ago, Dirk Elvermann, CFO of the German chemicals group, confirmed the goal of selling the 72.7 percent stake in the oil and gas company. Wintershall Dea wants to legally separate the Russia-related businesses by mid-2024. BASF wants to monetize the non-Russian part. The rest of the company is in the hands of the investment company Letterone, in which the oligarch Mikhail Fridman has bundled his shares.

The Russian part of the subsidiary has already been completely written off, CFO Elvermann added. However, the Group was able to recover some of the money from the state, among others. The manager referred to considerable state investment guarantees in the low billion euro range. However, the associated claims are not currently shown as receivables in BASF's balance sheet.

Adnoc, which is controlled by Abu Dhabi, claims almost all the oil for the United Arab Emirates and plans to expand its business in the areas of natural gas, chemicals and clean energy worldwide. Adnoc is also currently trying to take over the German chemicals group Covestro. Covestro confirmed talks in September, but since then there has been largely no communication with the outside world. Informally, Adnoc is said to have held out the prospect of 60 euros per share, which would value Covestro at 11.6 billion euros.

Last year, Adnoc had already acquired shares in the Austrian oil and gas supplier OMV. The Arab group is currently negotiating a merger of the chemical companies Borealis and Borouge with OMV. Borealis, based in Vienna, is 75 percent owned by OMV, with the remainder held by Adnoc. Borouge from Abu Dhabi, which is also listed, is itself a joint venture between Adnoc and Borealis./tav/he/ngu