Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, which was to hold one-third of the equity in Nalco, is in negotiations to reduce its holdings to about 25%, sources said. Consequently, Blackstone and Apollo would each have about 37% of the $1 billion of equity in the deal.

Meanwhile, negotiations over who would lead the debt financing finally ended Sept. 11, with Citigroup Inc. coming out on top.

Citigroup will lead, or in Street jargon, be "on the left" of the $3.2 billion bank loan and bond package. The New York megabank will also get much of the $100 million fee pool.

Blackstone Group initially won the hotly contested auction for Ondeo Nalco, with Citigroup exclusively financing its bid.

The financing, however, went into disarray after Blackstone decided to allow co-investors Apollo Management and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners into the deal. With Blackstone no longer the lead investor, other banks, which had supported Apollo and Goldman, were allowed into the financing.

In the end, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank AG, UBS AG, Bank of America Corp. and Goldman, Sachs & Co. also got a piece of the action.

Citigroup, BofA, Deutsche Bank and J.P. Morgan will be joint lead arrangers for the bank loans. The four lead arrangers plus Goldman Sachs and UBS will be joint bookrunners for both the bank and bond portions of the deal.

Citigroup and Bank of America, which also signed an exclusive financing agreement with Blackstone during the original auction, will be the joint global coordinators for the bank loans.