advertisement UPDATE 1-Australia's Orica set to buy Dyno Nobel-sources Monday 19 September 2005, 9:59pm EST Printer Friendly | Email Article | Reprints | RSS
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MELBOURNE, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Australian chemicals group Orica Ltd. (ORI.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) will announce later on Monday it has paid about US$1.5 billion for Norwegian explosives company Dyno Nobel in a consortium with Macquarie Bank Ltd. (MBL.AX: Quote, Profile, Research), industry sources said.
Orica was placed on a trading halt on Monday. A company spokesman said an announcement was due later in the day, but would give no further details.
However, industry sources told Reuters that Orica and Macquarie, which lodged a joint bid for Dyno Nobel, had succeeded with a bid of about US$1.5 billion.
Other contenders were private equity groups Bain Capital and Apollo Management, local media said.
A Macquarie spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
Analysts have said Orica needed to bid with a partner as it would probably not be able to acquire all of Dyno Nobel due to competition regulation concerns.
Orica was expected to be particularly interested in the eastern European, Asian and Latin American operations.
Dyno Nobel, started by dynamite inventor and Nobel prize founder Alfred Nobel was put on the market by private equity firm Industri Kapital. It appointed Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to manage the sale.
Macquarie shares continued to trade on Monday. They were last up 1.4 percent at A$66.89 in an overall market up 0.3 percent
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