Chemical Explorer:As per reports and inforamtion, troubled state of BP plc’s affairs and the potential for asset sales has at least one analyst suggesting that Vancouver-based Methanex Corp. could be a buyer.
BP owns a 36.9% stake in a joint venture with Methanex, the world’s largest supplier of methanol to major international markets, under which they own and operate the 1.8 million tonne Atlas methanol facility in Trinidad.A purchase of BP’s interest in Atlas Methanol Co. could result in meaningful earnings accretion to Methanex, according to RBC Capital Markets analyst Fai Lee, whose base case scenario pegs the gains at 14¢ per share.Depending on the purchase price, we believe the acquisition of the remaining Atlas interest could be positive for Methanex,” Mr. Lee told clients, emphasizing that he is not aware of any specific discussions between Methanex and BP.Given BP’s current state of affairs, we would not be surprised if it were to decide to sell its ownership interest in the Atlas methanol facility.If this happens, we believe Methanex would be a logical acquire.Methanex currently has effective control over Atlas’ operations and product marketing.As such,the company may not view the acquisition of Atlas as a strategic imperative. However, we would still expect Methanex to consider any potential opportunities that may arise from the sale of BP’s non-core assets to finance the clean-up of its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.Separately, the analyst trimmed his second quarter 2010 EPS estimate for Methanex to 15¢ from 26¢ to reflect a recent 61-day production outage at the Atlas facility, which lead to approximately 193,000 tonnes of lost production for the company.