Chemicals giant Dow Inc. (DOW) quietly kicked off an auction process for infrastructure assets in the Gulf of Mexico in January, and the sale is thought to be entering the mid-stages, The Deal has learned.

First round bids for an equity stake in the businesses were due the week of Feb. 16, people with knowledge of the matter said. Dow’s advisers, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Citigroup Inc., have solicited bids from top infrastructure funds, the people said. The Deal reported in November that Dow had engaged Goldman and Citi for a sale process involving a pool of infrastructure assets that was expected to kick off in the first quarter of 2024.

Dow is looking to sell a 49% equity interest in a holding company created to house various infrastructure assets that have to do with its sprawling petrochemical production operations along the Gulf Coast, the people said.

The expectation is that the assets, which are being marketed on Ebitda generation of between $500 million and $600 million, could fetch somewhere around nine to 10 times Ebitda in a sale, one of the sources said.

At the high end of the expected Ebitda range, a stake sale could approach $2.75 billion to $3 billion and value the entire selection of assets at between $5.5 billion and $6 billion, the source explained. The Deal reported in November that Dow was expected to sell about $5 billion worth of infrastructure assets in an auction that could kick off as early as the first quarter of 2024.

It couldn’t be immediately learned which funds had submitted first round offers, though it’s widely expected that the world’s largest infra funds managed by the likes of Blackrock Inc. (BLK), Global Infrastructure Partners, Apollo Global Management Inc. (APO), Blackstone Inc. (BX), KKR & Co. (KKR), Macquarie Asset Management, Brookfield Corp. (BN) and ETQ AB are likely to have received outreach.

Editor’s note: The original, full version of this article was published Nov. 20, 2023, on The Deal’s premium subscription website. For access, log in to TheDeal.com or use the form below to request a free trial.