FT Alphaville " Bidders said to line up for Arkema French speciality chemicals group Arkema is understood to have received multiple takeover approaches, valuing the business at €5.5bn or more, according to FT Alphaville's usually knowledgeable sources. Attention from other sector heavyweights, thought to include DuPont and also BASF, comes in the wake of Arkema's recent success in off-loading its troublesome vinyls unit to Gary Klesch's Swiss-based Klesch group. Arkema announced its decision to dispose of the loss-making division last November, but only finalised the plans with Klesch earlier this month. Arkema has long been considered a likely takeover target, but the vinyls business was seen as an impediment. Last December, Bloomberg named Saudi Basic Industries, along with DuPont, as a possible buyer, although it is not known whether the Saudis have revived their interest in recent weeks. Despite a sharp rally in the share price this month, Arkema has been stuck at a deep and persistent discount to its peers - put at 26 per cent by SocGen analysts in a recent note to clients. SocGen has argued that getting rid of the vinyls business would significantly reduce the group's cyclicality. The stock is currently trading at less than five times year-end forecast earnings, with Q2 figures due at the beginning of August. Arkema traditionally performs better in the second half of the year. In the past, analysts have suggested that Arkema might attract takeover interest in the region of €70 a share. But sources on Friday suggested this now needed to be revised sharply upwards to €90 a share or more. No one at Arkema was available to comment. David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital is a bit holder in Arkema, with just over 15 per cent according to Reuters data. From time to time, in the wake of onerous regulatory restrictions placed on bank and company sources, FT Alphaville publishes stories that have not yet been confirmed in a formal way. Reader beware. For more detail on this, follow our regular Markets Live discussions. This entry was posted by Paul Murphy on Friday, July 6th, 2012 at 11:12 and is filed under M&A. Tagged with Arkema, basf, dupont.