BP Spinoff Picks Chcago Over Houston

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley took the bows this week when the petrochemical spinoff of oil giant BP PLC announced that it had chosen Chicago over Houston for its headquarters.

But it was Gov. Rod Blagojevich who sealed the deal with an offer of about $12 million in financial assistance to the new company, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

A final agreement on the amount of the subsidy has not been reached.The Daley administration isn't giving any financial aid to the new company, which last year had $13 billion in revenue, which would have made it the 14th-largest company in the Chicago area by that measure.

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