INEOS, Britain’s largest private company, is in talks with Middle Eastern and Chinese investors that could lead to a partial sale of the debt-laden business.

The company is struggling with £6.4 billion borrowings which the founder, Jim Ratcliffe, built up buying assets from the likes of BP and ICI. In 12 years he has turned the Hampshire-based firm into a global chemicals giant with $47 billion (£31 billion) annual sales and 15,000 staff.

The recession has hit it hard, however, and Ratcliffe is thought to be looking for investors to inject cash. It is understood that Ineos has recently held exploratory talks with Sabic, Saudi Arabia’s state-controlled chemicals firm, and also Kuwait’s Petrochemical Industries Company.

Tom Crotty, chief executive of Ineos, declined to disclose the suitors’ identity but confirmed that the company had entered “preliminary” discussions. “We are in talks with several parties that may lead to us bringing someone in, either as an equity partner in the group or on certain assets,” he said.

Negotiations with other potential partners stalled because of the gulf between the company’s valuation expectations and what most firms would be willing to pay for a slice of the beleaguered group.

Last summer it struck a refinancing deal with lenders that lifted its annual interest bill from £534m to £666m. That was seen as a temporary solution.

A number of predators are circling. Horizon, the investment vehicle set up by Hugh Osmond, has been examining the potential for a deal. He considered a proposal that would have repaid part of the outstanding senior debt and injected new equity into Ineos, but the discussions are believed to have broken off.

Another proposal discussed with the Middle East players would see the company hive off its petrochemical commodities businesses, which make ingredients for products such as plastics. They could then put cash into the operation and gain a European entry point for the cheap feedstocks they produce.

Crotty said that negotiations were continuing with PetroChina, the state-owned company that offered to take a stake in Ineos’s Grangemouth refinery last year. “We are looking at opportunities for value creation and a partner that may bring something new and different to the business,” he said.