BP reveals cost of stake in EC Erdoelchemie

BP paid more than $ 685 mm for the 50 % stake in German petrochemical joint venture EC Erdoelchemie it bought from Bayer. It is been reported BP paid around $ 0.45 for each share in the joint venture's sales.

Erdoelchemie becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of BP's Deutsche BP unit. Erdoelchemie was founded in 1957 as a 50:50 joint venture between BP and Bayer and has a total annual petrochemical production of around 4.4 mm tons.
The plant is located in Cologne and will account for 15 % of BP's petrochemical operations. It plans on boosting its pretax profit by $ 68 mm by 2005 from last year's $ 165 mm.