Private equity and trade buyers have submitted first-round bids in the auction of Basell, the plastics maker jointly owned by BASF and Shell, sources close to the process said.

The auction has attracted bids from US private equity firms Apollo and Blackstone, which are viewed as front runners to buy the business, the sources said.
Fellow US buyout shop Bain has made a joint bid with Goldman Sachs Private Equity, and US firm Clayton, Dubilier and Rice is also in the running, banking sources told Loan Pricing Corporation, Reuters’ syndicated loans unit.
Analysts have said Basell should ideally be sold to a petrochemicals or oil company, but such buyers were likely to be few and far between.
At least one trade buyer also submitted an offer by the deadline, one of the sources said, but he declined to name the suitor.
Russia’s LUKoil and Saudi Arabia’s SABIC were mooted as potential interested parties, though both have since said they did not plan to bid.
Oil giant Shell and BASF, the world’s top chemicals company by sales, put Basell, their 50-50 joint venture on the block in July. Shell sold half of Basell, which was previously known as Montell, to BASF in 2000.
The company manufactures polypropylene and polyolefin  plastics products. Its business is heavily cyclical - it is reliant on commodity prices, and its cashflow and income can also vary according to supply and demand.