Exxon, Lyondell among suitors for Shell’s US chemical assets, could fetch $8 billion, FT reports

Aug 24 (Reuters) – Oil major Shell has drawn interest from potential bidders, including ExxonMobil and LyondellBasell, for its U.S. chemical assets that could fetch up to $8 billion, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

Private equity firm Apollo Global Management and the chemicals arm of state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation have also expressed interest in the assets, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter, as Shell seeks to divest underperforming chemical plants.

ExxonMobil declined to comment on the report, while Shell, LyondellBasell, Apollo, and Kuwait Petroleum did not respond to Reuters requests for comment outside regular business hours.

Shell’s U.S. chemicals business includes plants at four sites in Louisiana, Texas and Pennsylvania that produce chemicals used in plastics, detergents and pharmaceuticals, the FT added.

Potential buyers submitted non-binding offers last month, the newspaper said, with bids ranging from proposals for the entire business to parts of it.

The reported price represents a steep discount to the amount of capital Shell has invested in the facilities, according to the FT.

Earlier this month, Shell agreed to sell its onshore renewables power business in Europe to TotalEnergies, as the British energy major continues to scale back its low-carbon investments and sharpen its focus on upstream operations and trading. 

(Reporting by Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)