Middle Eastern buyers in $20 billion deal fever for plastics and metals

Middle Eastern state-owned companies are growing ever more ambitious as they scour the globe for acquisitions, targeting everything from a major European plastics producer to major mining operations.

In the last 24 hours alone, news of nearly $20 billion in potential deals has surfaced. Abu Dhabi energy giant Adnoc has made a preliminary approach to the German chemical producer Covestro AGbloomberg news reported on Tuesday, triggering a record jump in the shares. It is considering an offer that could value the business at almost 11 billion euros ($12 billion) and rank as the largest foreign acquisition in its history.