Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) has largely completed due diligence on its planned bid for German chemical company Covestro AG, paving the way for the state-owned energy firm’s biggest-ever deal, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
ADNOC could move forward with an €11.7 billion ($13 billion) offer for Covestro as soon as September, the people said. It has finished site visits to major Covestro plants as part of its in-depth confirmatory due diligence and hasn’t discovered any red flags, according to the people.
ADNOC still needs final signoff from senior officials for the planned bid of €62 per share, which may take several more weeks, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Representatives for ADNOC and Covestro declined to comment.
After more than a year of negotiations (GM Sept. 15, 2023), Covestro in June agreed to exchange information with ADNOC to help it firm up the prospective bid. ADNOC said at the time that a potential bid of €62 per share was its final offer, indicating it would not be raising any further after already bumping several times from its first proposal of €55 per share.
Shares of Covestro have risen 13% in the past year, giving the company a market value of about €10.3 billion.
Backed by tens of billions of dollars of oil money, ADNOC has been scouring the world for deals, Bloomberg reported. Chemicals are a big part of that push, as the company sees demand for products used to make goods such as plastics continuing to rise over the coming decades, while the energy transition is likely to slow oil demand.