India-based Reliance is continuing to try to purchase the bankrupt chemical giant. The offer, initally tendered in November, stands at $13.5b.

The Dutch-based Lyondell is continuing to work through its Chapter 11 reorganization, and recently filed a motion for settling claims of creditors and setting up a litigation trust fund.

Bridgepoint Education-Ashford University

Of course the big news for Bridgepoint and Ashford recently was the purchase of the property of the Clinton Country Club for an undisclosed price $2.5 million.

Ashford University is adding to its educational offerings, most recently adding specializations to its MBA program. Ashford graduated a record number of students at it winter ceremony and attracted a prominent commencement speaker in National Public Radio’s senior correspondent, Susan Stamberg.

RockTenn

RockTenn posted very good earnings growth in its Q1 2010 filing.

The Norcross, Ga.-based packaging and folding cartons maker (NYSE: RKT) had net income of $56.3 million and earnings of $1.43 a share, compared with net income of $30.6 million and earnings of 79 cents a share in the first quarter of 2009.

The company has also recently announced price increases in its corrugated box and sheet as well as its uncoated recycled paper products.

ADM

ADM is beginning initial startup of the bioplastics plant in Clinton.
The cogeneration facility is up and running.

The company also donated 700 tons of rice to Haiti relief.

India’s Reliance Industries has tendered a non-binding offer for LyondellBasell. Details were not disclosed but sources cited by CBS News Marketwatch say it is in the neighborhood of $12 billion. Rumors has been circulating that US-based private equity firm TPG and Chinese chemical giant Sinopec had been mulling a joint offer but they were denied by officials from both companies last week.

There is a good profile of the for-profit education market in Fast Company this week.

LyondellBasell is expected to leave Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the new year. The holding company is half-owned by Access Industries, the investment vehicle of Russian tycoon, Len Blavatnik, and ProChemie, a group controlled by Andreas Heeschen, a German tycoon best known for his investment in Heckler & Koch, the arms maker.

Bridgepoint Education, the San Diego-based owner of Ashford University, showed continued growth in revenues and student enrollments in its 3rd quarter report last week Bridgepoint Education has 54,894 students enrolled through Ashford and its University of the Rockies in Colorado. Of those students, 99 percent take their classes exclusively online.

Net income also is up significantly to $22.4 million, an increase of 155 percent over last year at the same time. The school also announced this fall that it would offer scholarships to top-performing students who study on the Clinton campus, including full-tuition scholarships to those who have a 3.5 GPA or above. The campus now has more than 600 students, the most in its history. Bridgepoint bought the campus in 2005 for $9 million from the Sisters of St. Francis.

Paper products company Rock-Tenn reported its quarterly financials last week. Although revenues are down from a year ago, they have been climbing back up this year on a quarter-by-quarter basis. In addition, RockTenn reported that they have increased their operating margins from the mid teens earlier in the year to 30% this quarter.

Archer Daniels Midland reported a steep drop in revenues this quarter over the quarter a year ago as profits fell 53%. At ADM’s corn-processing operations, which includes the company’s ethanol business, operating profit increased 59% as corn and manufacturing costs fell. Earnings rose in the unit’s sweeteners and starches business, but the bioproducts business turned in a loss as ethanol and lysine prices fell.

LyondellBasell said yesterday that one of its European holding companies had also filed for bankruptcy protection and that it arranged for up to $8 billion (£5.4 billion) in financing to keep operating. The private company took on billions of dollars in debt obligations a year ago, when Mr Blavatnik led a $12.7 billion leveraged buyout of Lyondell, an American company, by Basell of the Netherlands.

Volker Trautz, chief executive of LyondellBasell, said the company had seen a dramatic softening in demand and volatile raw materials costs over the past two quarters.

“December was particularly difficult, as many of our customers postponed orders to reduce their inventories,” he said.

Basell Finance, a subsidiary of LyondellBasell Industries, also filed for bankruptcy protection. It said that it had listed assets and debt of more than $1 billion and admitted that it was keeping at bay more than 25,000 creditors. It is believed that the company’s 79 affiliates will also file for court protection.

The latest filings indicate that LB will emerge from Chapter 11 protection this month.

This week rumors are circulating that Indian chemical giant Reliance Industries is aiming for a takeover.

Reliance Industries has a market value of about $70 billion and is the most widely held stock by fund managers in India. The company has a cash of $4.6 billion and gross debt of $10.8 billion. With such a strong financials and cash raised from the proposed sale of treasury stock, the company’s desire for aggressive growth via inorganic model is obvious.