BASF, the biggest chemicals company in the world, saw its shares drop following a media report that it is mulling a counter-bid for DuPont. The latter had reportedly agreed to establish a merger with Dow Chemical toward the end of 2015.
Trade shares dropped by at least 2.3 percent lower, which was seen as one of the biggest decliners that occurred among German blue-chips. So far, share prices dropped by 12 percent since the beginning of the year.
Analysts see the drop as a reaction to the possible bidding war for DuPont, which could become an expensive battle. To give a clearer picture, a successful bid by BASF would result in DuPont spending as much as $1.9 billion as a fee for breaking up with Dow.
This can even go further, with the skepticism that BASF could follow through with a bid, and thus would be dragged to handle a rather expensive takeover race.
Bernstein analysts believe that BASF is not capable of making a more desirable counter-offer and might even find it difficult to come up with the expected $72 billion bid offer for DuPont.
James Sheehan, an analyst at Suntrust Robinson Humphrey based in Atlanta, said that DuPont may just be able to fill that gap for BASF where it lacks seed business. He added that DuPont would be a positive and strategic fit for the company.
BASF expects a drop in its earnings this year by as much as 10 percent. The company cited how the drop in crude prices had terribly hurt its oil and gas segment and affected margins in petrochemicals.
"Risks continue to rise for the global economy," said BASF Chief Executive Kurt Bock. "We nevertheless aim to raise sales volumes in all segments. BASF Group sales will decline considerably, however, especially as a result of the divestiture of the gas trading and storage business. We expect EBIT before special items to be slightly below 2015 levels. This is an ambitious goal in the current volatile and challenging environment, and is particularly dependent on the development of the oil price."
Delaware-based DuPont and Michigan-based Dow Chemical reached an all-stock merger agreement in December believed to have a valuation of $130 billion. The move would combine two of the United States' biggest and oldest chemical producers.
BASF is said to have a market value of around $64 billion, while Dow's market value is estimated at $56 billion.
