BCP Crystal to receive financing from Morgan Stanley and Deutsche for Celanese acquisition

By Sara Rosenberg

New York, Dec. 16 - BCP Crystal Acquisition GmbH & Co. KG, a German limited partnership controlled by a group of funds advised by The Blackstone Group, has received firm financing commitments from Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank to help fund the voluntary takeover offer for all of the outstanding shares of chemical company Celanese AG of Kronberg, Germany.

Specifics on the financing structure were not yet available, a source close to the deal told Prospect News.

In addition to the debt financing, the company will receive equity funding for the transaction from Blackstone, according to a news release.

Under the takeover bid, BCP Crystal plans to offer a price per share of €32.50, which represents a premium of 46% over the average daily volume-weighted price per share of Celanese in 2003 and a premium of 13% over the three-month volume-weighted average daily closing share price of €28.66.

The total transaction value is about €3.1 billion including the value of Celanese's current net debt and pension and post-retirement benefit obligations.

BCP Crystal plans to arrange a pre-funding of about $460 million into Celanese's pension funds, covering a large part of the underfunding of those funds, the news release said.

The offer is conditioned on, among other things, the receipt of antitrust clearances.

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