(Bloomberg) -- Indian chemical producer UPL Ltd. is seeking a loan of about $3 billion to help fund its bid for Bill Ackman-backed Platform Specialty Products Corp.’s agricultural pesticides unit, people with knowledge of the matter said.

UPL has been asking banks for an 18-month bridge loan to back its offer for the business, known as Arysta LifeScience, according to the people. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Cooperatieve Rabobank UA are in talks to provide the financing, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details are private.

Bloomberg News reported last month that a consortium including UPL and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority was in exclusive talks to buy the business, which could fetch more than $4 billion including debt.

The investor group hasn’t reached a final acquisition agreement, and details of the funding could change, the people said. Representatives for UPL and Rabobank declined to comment. A representative for MUFG didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Platform, whose biggest stakeholder is Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management, said last year it intended to separate crop chemicals into a separate publicly traded company. In June, it said it entered exclusive negotiations on a potential sale of the business to an unidentified suitor.

Arysta LifeScience, which employs about 3,000 people, accounted for about half of Platform’s $3.8 billion in sales last year. Florida-based Platform has said it aims to update investors on a deal by the time of its second-quarter results, which are likely to be announced in early August.

--With assistance from P R Sanjai and Dinesh Nair.

To contact the reporters on this story: George Smith Alexander in Mumbai at galexander11@bloomberg.net;Anurag Joshi in Mumbai at ajoshi53@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Scent at bscent@bloomberg.net, ;Andrew Monahan at amonahan@bloomberg.net, Timothy Sifert, Amy Thomson

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.