KARACHI: AsiaPak Investments, a private investment firm with operational assets in Pakistan and Hong Kong, and Middle Eastern oil and gas company Montage Oil have bid for a 75.01 per cent stake in Lotte Chemical Pakistan, according to a notice filed by the manager tothe offer with the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Thursday.

`The due diligence and price discovery for a share price agreement is yet to happen,` Shahid Ali Habib, CEO of Arif Habib Ltd, the manager to the offer, told Reuters.

Lotte Chemical Corp, theKorean parent company, had put up the Pakistani unit for sale, citing a mismatch with its long-term vision.

But two previous deals for the company, which currently has a market capitalisation of Rs32.1 billion ($115 million), have fallen through.First, Pakistan-based petrochemical firm Novatex pulled its offer to buy the 75 per cent stake in 2023 and last year a unit of conglomerate Lucky Core Industries endedits deal to buy the stake for about 192.4 billion won ($132.85m).

-Reuters