Norway's Statoil to sell stake in Borealis to partners for US$1.21billion

02-Jul-05

Norway's Statoil has drawn up an ambitious industrial plan to continue developing Statoil as a competitive oil and gas company on the Norwegian continental shelf and internationally. Since petrochemical no longer forms part of its core business interest, Statoil has decided to dispose off its share in Borealis. The Statoil ASA oil company is to sell its half-interest in Danish petrochemicals group Borealis to its existing partners in Borealis, the Abu Dhabi government-owned International Petroleum Investment Co.( IPIC) and oil company OMV AG. After the sale, likely to close in Q4 of this year, IPIC will own 65% of Borealis and OMV will hold the balance 35%. The stakes could amount to US$1.21 billion. Statoil has owned a stake in Borealis since 1994, by a merger of Statoil's petrochemicals interests with those of Finland's Neste group. Borealis is considered among the world's top 10 plastic companies, with revenues of about 4.6 billion euros ($5.54 billion) in 2004.