Shell, BASF narrow bidders to three

The three bidders who will go on to the next auction round for the companies’ polyolefins business are Europe’s Ineos Chlor, National Petrochemical of Iran and Haldia Petrochemicals of India, according to a report in the Financial Times. The three are reported to have submitted offers of $5.5 billion to $5.7 billion, the FT reported on its Web site.

American private equity firms Blackstone Group, Apollo Management, Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners ( had joined forces to make a bid for Basell, but are thought to not have made the cut, the FT said.

Shell  and BASF put the company up for sale a year ago as part of Shell’s plan to shed between $12 billion and $15 billion in non-core assets over the next three years.

U.S.-traded shares of Royal Dutch/Shell closed down 12 cents at $59.39 on Friday, while BASF rose 80 cents to close $69.