LyondellBasell (Rotterdam / The Netherlands; www.lyondellbasell.com) has reached an out-of-court settlement with its unsecured creditors, whose financial claims had thrown up potential roadblocks to the group’s exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings as well as a possible asset sale – for detailed coverage see Plasteurope.com of 28.07.2009.

The group’s creditors had been seeking to recover part of the USD 22 bn they say was lost in the merger of the former Lyondell and Basell in 2007. With the settlement out of the way – pending court approval – LyondellBasell said it expects to complete its reorganisation plan “soon.” The agreement reached on 16 February increases the payout to USD 450m from a previously envisaged USD 300m. The additional USD 150m will be paid as “reorganised equity,” raised by reducing distributions to LyondellBasell’s senior lenders and bridge loan providers.

The proposed settlement will be worked into the reorganisation plan that will foresee conversion of USD 18 bn of senior and bridge debt into common equity and its allocation among principal lenders, including private equity groups Apollo and Ares Capital as well as pre-bankruptcy sole owner Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries investment vehicle – see Plasteurope.com of 12.01.2010.

It is not clear to what extent the settlement might affect plans of India’s Reliance Industries (RIL, Mumbai; www.ril.com), to acquire LyondellBasell. The unsecured creditors had been pushing the Indian takeover.