Bloomberg update: Clariant or Ciba may be targets for Dow, BASF or Sabic

A recent Bloomberg update (Clariant May Be Bait for Dow as Oil Hammers Shares) makes for some interesting reading. The gist of the article is:

• Clariant AG trades at 15 percent under book value and less than half what it fetched a year ago. That may make the Swiss company a $4 billion takeover target for BASF SE or Dow Chemical Co., which are shopping for acquisitions.
• It is suggested that Clariant and Ciba Holding AG of Basel, would be logical targets for Dow Chemical, as it is looking for opportunities, and in the U.S. there isn't much that is attractive.
• Clariant and Ciba, spinoffs of drug companies in the 1990s, never "took off'' because they were unable pass along higher raw material costs.
• Clariant is a good buy with a P/E ratio is 7.80.
  
• BASF, Dow and Riyadh-based Saudi Basic Industries Corp., or Sabic could all be in line to bid.
• Ironically, Clariant was today's second-best performing share in the benchmark Swiss Market Index, rising 3.8% to 9.31 Swiss francs at the close of trading in Zurich, giving the company a market value of 2.06 billion francs ($2.1 billion).

Further consolidation of the paper chemicals market it may well involve acquisitions into larger companies rather than spin-offs into pure paper chemicals companies. Watch this space as there is considerable activity in the market today.