By Emma-Victoria Farr and Maha El Dahan
(Reuters) -Covestro’s supervisory board is meeting on Friday to discuss whether to hold formal negotiations with suitor Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) over the energy group’s takeover approach, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The sign of change from Covestro’s previous reserved stance comes after two top-15 investors of the plastics and chemicals maker told Reuters last month that it should engage in formal takeover talks in the interest of its shareholders.
Covestro and ADNOC declined to comment.
ADNOC, which is trying to diversify and develop its downstream and renewable energy operations, made a non-binding offer for Covestro of 55 euros per share in June, which was rejected, according to media reports.
In August, ADNOC indicated to Covestro, which has not commented on the takeover approach, that it could raise its informal offer to 60 euros conditional on the German company entering formal talks, Reuters reported at the time.
Bloomberg News reported the news earlier on Friday.
(Writing by Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt and Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; editing by Elisa Martinuzzi and Jason Neely)
