Italy’s oil&gas giant Eni mulls the sale of its chemical subsidiary Versalis, Bloomberg wrote two days ago. Actually Eni mandated Barclays as its financial advisor in order to look for the best way to follow for Versalisìs future. The company is said to have an enterprise value of about one billion euros.
Versalis is the biggest chemical company in Italy and produces polymers to be used y different industries such as automotive, food packaging and toys maufacturing. The chemical unit reported an adjusted operating profit of 95 million euros in the first half of 2015, compared to a loss of 182 million euros in the same period the previous year.
Eni’s ceo Claudio Descalzi said in the past that he was thinking to a strategic partnersjip for its chimical division so private equity funds are said to be the best option for this deal.
International private equity forms might also think to a double deal in Italy if you think that also Polynt is on the market. Polynt is a chemical company now owned by Investindustrial, one of the largest Italian private equity firms and has been put on sale some months ago (see here a previous post by BeBeez).