LyondellBasell locked in talks with creditors

07-Jan-09

World's third-largest petrochemical maker LyondellBasell, on the brink of bankruptcy, is locked in talks with creditors, two days after a deadline to renegotiate terms of its heavy debt load. LyondellBasell struggles under a debt burden of US$26 bln, much of which was taken on a year ago in the US$12.7 bln leveraged buyout of US based Lyondell by Dutch-based Basell, a unit of Russian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik's Access Industries. LyondellBasell's lenders include Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, ABN AMRO and UBS Securities LLC. Asset sales may not be an attractive option since the company is likely to realize on a fraction of the price those assets were valued at only a few months ago. Another fact is that asset sales might take too long to close. Lyondell Chemical Co. is in discussions with its own creditors and others to line up debtor-in-possession financing, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.