Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, in short Sabic, has shown interest in GE Plastics, the synthetic material division of General Electric. The Saudis have given corporate bank Citigroup the order the prepare an offer during the auction that will take place in April.

GE Plastics has among others a large production facility in Bergen op Zoom. A few years ago Sabic took over the petrochemical activities of DSM at South Limburg. Chairman Mohamed Al-Mady recently announced that he wants to expand his global activities.

In January General Electric announced the sale of GE Plastics, because of disappointing profit margins due to rising prices of raw material.

The auction, which will be organised by corporate bank Goldman Sachs, could bring in 12 billion dollar, according to observers. A number of risk-bearing capitalists are preparing an offer. The chemical companies Basell, BASF and the Indian concern Reliance Industries are amongst the interested companies.

Source: C2W