Bayer Rumored To Sell Plastics Business For More Than $10.8B

Shares of Bayer AG (OTC: BAYRY) are up 3.2 percent to $134.31 on a first quarter earnings and a report from Bloomberg the company is said to be considering the sale of its $10 billion plastics unit.

Evonik Industries expressed interest “some months ago, according to people with knowledge of the matter,” wrote Bloomberg reporter Aaron Kirchfeld.

According to analyst Fabian Wenner, analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux, Bayer's plastics unit could sell for more than $10.8 billion.

Analyst Odile Rundquist believes “it would be a very good time” for Bayer to sell the unit and “rising capacity use and dropping raw materials prices at the unit helped push first-quarter earnings above analyst estimates today.”