(Releads with shares, adds traders' comments)
MILAN, March 31 (Reuters) - Shares in Pirelli remained slightly above the bid price offered by China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina) after the Italian tyre maker announced a dividend payout on Tuesday, in a sign investors see value in keeping the stock.
ChemChina will become the majority owner of the world's fifth-largest tyre maker in a 7.3 billion-euro ($8 billion) deal agreed with Pirelli's biggest shareholders that will put the 143-year-old Italian firm in Chinese hands.
At 1537 GMT, Pirelli shares were 15.5 euros, above the buyout bid price of 15 euros per share, even when taking into account a dividend of 0.367 euros disclosed earlier on Tuesday and which will be paid before the deal goes ahead.
"Investors are clearly expecting the company to either sweeten its offer or that a counterbid might be forthcoming," one Milan-based trader said.
Pirelli Chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera said last week there were no talks on a counterbid. He also said that the offer presented by ChemChina was "very good".
Traders also said the market was speculating the shares could rise after a spinoff of Pirelli's industrial business that is envisaged in the agreement.
Under the deal with ChemChina, Pirelli's truck and industrial tyre business would be folded into the Chinese group's listed unit AEOLUS, allowing it to double its output.
Pirelli's dividend announcement on Tuesday did not mention any extraordinary payouts. Analysts have said a special dividend could have acted as a "sweetener" to convince shareholders to tender their shares when ChemChina and Pirelli's top investors launch a mandatory takeover bid on the company with a view to de-listing it.
Apart from the dividend on ordinary shares, Pirelli will pay 0.431 euros a share to investors holding saving shares. (Reporting by Agnieszka Flak, Stefano Rebaudo and Danilo Masoni; 3editing by Susan Thomas)