Volume Spike Investor

Huntsman Corp. (NYSE: HUN) is seeing some increased call options trading today, and this may be on the heels of private equity firm Apollo’s Hexion filing suit against the banks which refuse to fund the buyout of the chemical company.  The banks have just outright refused to fund this acquisition for a myriad of reasons, but the reason that stood out the most was the disbelief in the due diligence letter showing the belief that the combined Hexion-Huntsman would be a solvent entity.

It sees that traders have been lining up at least some bets on their own that this merger might actually have a shot at settling since the data has been set for court over the lawsuit in January.  This is rarely in the most active options on the BOE, but here is a list of today’s contracts:

STRIKE    Vol.       Op. Int.
$10.00    2,545    14,480
$12.50    3,415    29,316
$15.00    7,255    62,411
$20.00    1,005    55,318

Jon C. Ogg
November 3, 2008