India’s largest private-sector company, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), has submitted a bid to acquire Netherlands-headquartered petrochemicals giant LyondellBasell.
“RIL confirms that it has submitted to LyondellBasell a preliminary non-binding offer to acquire for cash a controlling interest in LyondellBasell upon its emergence from chapter 11 reorganisation,” RIL said in a statement on Saturday.
If successful, it will be the biggest overseas acquisition by an Indian company, beating Tata Steel’s $12-billion (Rs 55,200-crore) acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steel major Corus in 2007 by a fair margin.
It will also catapult RIL into the elite league of companies that have a market capitalisation of more than $100 billion (Rs 460,000 crore) with a potential consolidated revenue of nearly $80 billion (Rs 368,000 crore).
LyondellBasell had combined revenues of $50.7 billion (Rs 240,000 crore) in 2008, compared with RIL’s $28.85 billion (Rs 133,000 crore).
The company, which had $27 billion in assets and $19 billion in debt, filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of US Bankruptcy Code in January.