Access Industries, a private-equity group founded by Len Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born American, bought Basell Polyolefins in 2005.
That, in part, may be why last July Basell's owners, as the market was rising, decided to sell.
It is these factors, not its main base, Europe, that provide the context in which Basell looks inviting to its future owners.
LyondellBasell creditors who are suing him claim in court papers that his personal loss was mitigated by dividends he took out of Basell.
Access Industries had borrowed about 80% of the cost of buying Basell, and Basell had borrowed 100% of the cost of buying Lyondell.
Haldia is already a licensee of Basell's technology in commodity plastics, and might fancy direct access to Basell's wide expertise in more upmarket stuff.
Huntsman also said it's possible that Apollo and Hexion were just trying to defeat a merger of Huntsman and Basell to protect Hexion's market share.
Likewise in Europe: Basell last month raised prices yet again.
In a statement, an Access spokesperson says a holding company owned by Blavatnik was the owner of Basell prior to the Lyondell merger and that the returns he ultimately received during his beneficial ownership of that company have nothing to do with the loss he incurred from the merger.
The chemical company argues that Apollo persuaded Huntsman to drop out of a June 2007 takeover deal with the Holland-based Basell by falsely indicating it would buy Huntsman at a better price, when in fact Apollo was acting out a broader plan to mar the transaction process so badly that it would compel Huntsman to come to Hexicon at a lower price.
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