Shanghai Daily: Business - shanghaidaily.com
CHINA National Chemical Corp has offered A$2.96 billion (US$2.7 billion) for Australian farm-chemical maker Nufarm Ltd and invited two United States private equity firms to join the bid, three people familiar with the matter said yesterday. China National, known as ChemChina Group, wrote to Nufarm on Wednesday with an indicative bid of A$17.25 per share, two of the people said, declining to be identified because the details are private. The company asked Blackstone Group LP, manager of the world's biggest buyout fund, and Fox Paine & Co to take minority stakes in Nufarm, they said. ChemChina would be the first state-owned Chinese company to team up with buyout firms for an overseas acquisition, the people said. New York-based Blackstone, which counts China's US$200-billion sovereign wealth fund among its investors, in September agreed to buy a stake in ChemChina's specialty chemicals unit, China National BlueStar Group Corp, for US$600 million. "You'll see more of the