BASF (BAS GY) is reportedly prepared to discuss a higher offer for Evonik (EVK GY), WiWo reports citing sources

Reported willingness to discuss a higher offer is a standard mid-negotiation signal in corporate deal processes, and episodes of this kind have tended to follow a familiar sequence: an initial approach or indication, a period of price tension, then either a sweetened bid or a walk-away, with press leaks frequently used by one side to test the other. The sourcing matters here: unnamed-reports of this sort sit between market rumour and formal confirmation, and in comparable German chemicals consolidation chatter the pattern has been for both parties to issue holding statements before anything binding emerges. Sector context is relevant, since large-cap chemicals combinations have historically faced extended antitrust and portfolio-overlap scrutiny, which lengthens timelines and introduces remedy risk even where strategic logic is accepted. The immediate follow-ons worth noting are whether either company confirms talks, whether a formal offer structure (cash versus shares) is referenced, and whether any other suitor is drawn in. As a report rather than an announcement, the signal is directional and the spread between rumour and confirmed terms is where the risk sits.