I ndustry News
Rohm & Haas sues Dow for breach of contract
Rohm & Haas is suing Dow Chemical in
a Delaware court for failing to complete
the agreed $15.4 billion takeover within
the agreed time frame. After receiving
the green light from the U.S. Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) on January
23, 2009, Dow was obliged to close the
deal by January 27. The trial will begin
on March 9 and is scheduled to conclude
in the same week. For every day beyond
the original closing date, Dow faces a
“ticking fee” of $3.3 million a day.
Dow recently informed Rohm and
Haas that it would not close on the proposed acquisition. According to a press
release from Dow, the company determined that recent material developments have created unacceptable
uncertainties on the funding and economics of the combined enterprise.
This asessment is based on several
macro-economic factors such as the
continued crisis in global financial and
credit markets combined with the failure of Petrochemicals Industries
Company of Kuwait (PIC) to fulfill its
obligation to complete the formation of
the K-Dow joint venture in late
December 2008, which would have netted the firm $9 billion to use towards
the purchase of Rohm & Haas.
PRICING CHANGES
Oxea: Mar. 1—increase list and off-list
prices for n-Butyl Acetate by €25/mt.
Eastman: Mar. 1—off-list increase of
$0.09/lb ($0.20/kg, €0.16/kg) globally for
isophthalic acid.
Troy: Jan. 30—up to 18% increase for all
Polyphase products; up to 5% for certain
Mergal biocides.
DISTRIBUTOR APPOINTMENTS
CB Mills has appointed Manutrol to distribute its products in Canada.
“Our long term strategy remains
unchanged and the proposed acquisition of Rohm and Haas is consistent
with this strategy,” said Andrew N.
Liveris, chairman and CEO. “Since
Dow learned in late December of PIC’s
failure to close the K-Dow transaction,
Dow has been aggressively engaged on
multiple paths seeking ways to enable
the Rohm and Haas transaction. Dow
remains interested in discussion to
find a solution to complete the acquisition of Rohm and Haas, but recent
events have made closing untenable at
this time.”
In response to Dow’s actions regarding the merger, Rohm and Haas has
filed suit against Dow and issued a
statement which reads in part:
Rohm and Haas believes that Dow
has the resources and flexibility to live
up to its obligations under the merger
agreement. Rather than focus on the
necessary steps, Dow has embarked on
an aggressive campaign in an attempt
to frighten our employees, communities
and customers with its statements.
Rohm and Haas believes that the combination of the two companies will create a strong global competitor to benefit the shareholders and all other
stakeholders in the longer term. These
are sentiments often expressed by Dow
since last summer. While there are
short-term challenges in today’s economy, the combined company is well positioned to meet those needs.
CLARIANT, XL PERFORMANCE
CHEMICALS FORM ALLIANCE
Clariant’s Functional Chemicals
Division and Dalton, GA-based XL
Performance Chemicals have formed
an alliance to serve the $2.3 billion
worldwide foam-control market. In
the initial phase of the alliance,
Clariant will be the exclusive distrib-
utor throughout North America for a
broad range of XL-manufactured
foam control products for metal
working, paint and coatings, mining,
oil service, crop protection and select
construction applications. The products will be marketed under XL’s D-Foam-R product name.
CAS-MI LABORATORIES
LAUNCHES INNOVATION CENTER
CAS-MI Laboratories has opened its
CAS-MI Innovation Center, an incubator for new industrial and consumer
formulated products, including paints,
coatings, plastics, adhesives and more.
The scientists at this independent
facility can take a new or existing idea
and develop formulations all the way
through production, creating bench-top batches for testing and scale-up.
The Innovation Center staff may also
assist with certifications, environmental standards, as well as help manage
toll production. An example of CAS-MI’s product development services is
Idea Paint, www.ideapaint.com. The
CAS-MI Innovation Center helped formulate this start-up’s high-performance dry-erase coating, coordinated
supply chain management, toll production and beta testing. The resulting
product received top awards at
NeoCon 2008, and is currently available through IdeaPaint.com and MDC
Wallcoverings.
UNIVAR’S SITE U+ CERTIFIED
Univar recently announced that its
Brussels site has attained full compliance with its stringent U+ standards.
Launched in 2006, U+ is a goal-based
combined management system that
requires each site to continually
improve their safety, health, environmental and quality management
(SHEQ) performance.
