Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital and Morgan Stanley are out with a $3.7 billion bridge facility to back the $9 billion acquisition of Innovene by INEOS, a manufacturer of petrochemicals, specialty and intermediate chemicals and polymers. The bridge will lead to what one banker described as a typical leveraged buyout financing. An INEOS spokesman said the companies expect to close the acquisition early in the New Year and said a lot depends upon regulatory approval both in the U.S. and in Europe. "We have started the regulatory process and are quite a long ways along; it is progressing well," he said.
Innovene is BP's olefins and derivatives and refining subsidiary. INEOS was formed by a management buyout of the former BP petrochemicals asset in Antwerp by Jim Ratcliffe, chief executive of INEOS. Innovene is a 100% BP-owned group created in April. It has a staff of 8,000 and manufacturing facilities in seven countries in North America and Europe.