Aug 3 2009
Arkema and The Dow Chemical Company have entered into an agreement for Dow to meet FTC required divestitures related to its acquisition of Rohm and Haas Company. This comes ahead of the November 27, 2009 deadline.
Arkema will buy a Clear Lake, Texas, acrylic acid and esters plant and the UCAR Emulsion Systems specialty latex businesses in North America for a fair value consideration of U.S. $50 million.
The proceeds from the sale are accretive to Dow's shareholders and will be used for further de-leveraging.
The selection of Arkema as the buyer must be approved by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and the two companies will be shortly reviewing the proposed transaction with FTC authorities. It's expected to close in the 4th quarter of 2009.
"Arkema is today taking another very important step in its history and its growth and development strategy. This acquisition is fully in line with our commitment to develop our best product lines and boost our downstream integration," states Thierry Le Hénaff, the Arkema Group's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
"The FTC order for our acquisition of Rohm and Haas required minimal divestitures," said Andrew N. Liveris, Dow chairman and chief executive officer. "Today's transaction, which comes well head of the November 27th deadline, is the major step in fulfilling our obligations to the Commission. And, after a full auction, we are pleased that the transaction realizes fair value, will result in further de-leveraging of our balance sheet, and is accretive to shareholders."