BASF, the world’s biggest chemical company, is in talks with potential buyers of its fertiliser units and has hired Morgan Stanley to handle the sale, according to sources.

THE Brazilian units of Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell and Basf SE have been fined a total of 622 million reais (€279 million) after former workers suffered health problems because of contamination at a plant in Paulinia, Sao Paulo state, from the 1970s to 2002.