LONDON (Reuters) – A consortium of Middle Eastern investors and American buyout firms is preparing a $50 billion approach for Dow Chemical Co. in what could be the world’s biggest ever leveraged buyout, a paper said on Sunday.

The Sunday Express said, quoting sources close to the deal, that a financing package has been put in place for a break-up bid of between $52 to $58 a share and an approach valuing the company at at least $50 billion could come by the end of this week.

At least half of the capital is being provided by investors from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and Oman, with the rest contributed by a number of U.S. buyout firms including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, it said.