BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) intends to sell up to around 19.7 million shares of fertilizer company K+S AG (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.k-plus-s.com).
BASF said that the shares would be “placed with institutional investors in an accelerated bookbuilding transaction via Bank of America Merrill Lynch.” The total represents 10.3% of the company’s share capital.
With the expected capital gain from the sale, BASF said it aims to further optimize its balance sheet and continue to reduce its debt. The shares for sale have a market value of $1.48 billion (€1.07 billion) based on the closing share price of K+S AG as of March 10, 2011.