Evonik Industries said to have lined up multi-billion EURO/CHF debt financing package for acquisition deal; Clariant primary takeover target

Clariant's shares were down almost 5pc yesterday after Evonik's largest shareholder appeared to shoot down the likelihood of the German company making a move on the Swiss chemicals group.

Here is a link to the Bloomberg piece on the topic: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-02/clariant-drops-as-evonik-owner-shoots-down-deal-speculation

RARE ALERT: Evonik said to have rekindled EURO 25 billion merger with Royal DSM - part 5

As I suspected, Cash magazine has got the wrong end of the stick.

Today's weakness in Clariant's shares can largely be pinned to comments from Evonik's biggest shareholder, who appears to be playing down a deal to reporters at Bloomberg.

RARE ALERT: Evonik said to have rekindled EURO 25 billion merger with Royal DSM - part 4

Swiss chemicals company Clariant is taking a bit of a pasting this morning - shares down almost 4pc - thanks to Cash magazine, the Swiss media group that once attempted a piss poor hatchet on me after I broke the story about the Agnelli's interest in buying a stake in Swiss Re.

RARE ALERT: Evonik said to have rekindled EURO 25 billion merger with Royal DSM - part 3

Croda International's shares perked up 3pc in late afternoon trade after Reuters/ Digital Look reported Germany's Evonik may interested in the London-listed company.

Here is a link to the Digital Look report:

RARE ALERT: Evonik said to have rekindled interest in EURO 25 billion merger with Royal DSM - part 2

I see Evonik has been talking about M&A at the company's AGM today.

According to one of my stockbroker chums, Evonik's chief executive told investors: "We will keep a cool head and not go on any adventures" and "we intend to keep a clear head. [we] will not subject ourselves to any speculations."

Well, the German company might not want to hang around for too long as I have been told there is another suitor sniffing around Dutch rival DSM.

Watching...