Ludwigshafen, Germany - A takeover bid by BASF, the world's biggest chemicals company, for Ciba Holding of Switzerland has nearly won sufficient acceptance from Ciba shareholders, according to the German company Wednesday.

The 3.8-billion-euro (4.8-billion-dollar) bid expired Tuesday.

BASF said its provisional count showed it had acceptances for 66.665 per cent of free float Ciba stock, just short of the target of 66.67 per cent for the 50-Swiss-francs-per-voting-share bid to become binding.

The quota does not include stock held by Ciba itself or already in BASF ownership.

A Swiss bank, Vontobel, has said that including this additional stock would mean BASF had a grip on 69.382 per cent of Ciba.

After the announcement, BASF stock rose 14.5 per cent on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange to 23.63 euros.

BASF said it would announce a final count of the acceptances on November 3.

This week BASF announced a bid for Revus Energy, a Norwegian company with 60 oil and gas concessions under the North Sea, and agreed to acquire a polyurethane business belonging to Recticel of Belgium.

The Ciba acquisition would give Ludwigshafen-based BASF access to specialty chemicals for the plastics, water and paints industries and be one of the two biggest takeovers in the German firm's history.

On Thursday, BASF is set to issue quarterly financial figures. (dpa)