Sources: SOCAR, Gunvor and Bin Butti will bid for refiner Italiana Petroli

Two sources familiar with the matter said that next week, State Oil Company of Azerbaijan SOCAR, global commodity trader Gunvor as well as Abu Dhabi's Bin Butti Group will be expected to make binding offers to acquire Italian oil refiner Italiana Petroli.

UniCredit is advising IP, or API Group as it's also called, on the sale. IP, owned by the wealthy Brachetti-Peretti family in Italy, has a refining capacity totaling around 200,000 barrels a day. It also has a network consisting of 4,600 fuel station.

IP declined to comment. Gunvor, SOCAR, and Bin Butti Group did not respond to requests for comment.

The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported on Tuesday that SOCAR was the leading candidate for the acquisition. It cited unnamed sources and said that the IP was valued between 2.3 billion euro and 2.5 billion euro ($2.61 billion to $2.84 billion).

Sources say that SOCAR and Gunvor had been looking at possible bids longer than Bin Butti who only recently joined the race to buy the Italian group.

Reports last month stated that SOCAR Gunvor, and Glencore were potential bidders. ($1 = 0.8797 euro) (Reporting and writing by Gianluca Smeraro and Susan Fenton, with additional reporting from Nailia Bagirova, Federico Maccioni, and Francesca Landini, and editing by Susan Fenton).

(source: Reuters)