Jotun to block
takeover bid
Jotun AS has blocked a $933
million takeover offer from
Orkla ASA , a Norwegian maker of pizzas and bathroom cleaners, according to
Jotun chairman Odd Gleditsch. The
Gleditsch family owns 59 percent of
Jotun’s voting rights and said it does not
want to relinquish control. Orkla, which
holds 38.2 percent of Jotun’s voting
rights, said that paints and coatings is a
market well aligned with its long-term
strategy and that buying Jotun could be a
way for the company to participate in the
future consolidation of the industry.
Orkla said it hopes the family bites on
the $13,075 per share offer it has made,
which would give it 90.9 percent of the
voting right. If accepted, the transaction
would lift Orkla’s holding in Sandefjord-based Jotun to 63. 6 percent from 42. 5
percent. The offer is conditional upon
Orkla gaining a stake of more than 50
percent of the voting rights. The acceptance period expires on Sept. 30.
Dunn-Edwards awarded LEED
Gold Certification from the U.S.
Green Building Council
Dunn-Edwards has been awarded the
LEED Gold Certification established by
the U.S. Green Building Council and verified by the Green Building Certification
Institute for its new manufacturing facility. Located in Phoenix, Ariz., the
336,000-sq.-ft. plant was custom designed
to be the greenest and most efficient in the
coatings industry, the company said, and
is the world’s first LEED-certified paint
manufacturing facility. The ultra-modern
building encompasses manufacturing,
product development, quality control laboratories, a distribution center, retail outlet and office space. LEED is the nation’s
preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.
“We have incorporated innovative, en-ergy-efficient equipment and protocols,
such as unique high-efficiency process
equipment with integrated dust-suppres-sion technology, so that no particulates
are emitted to ambient air, and advanced
wastewater recycling techniques to con-
serve water. Our systems are classified as
ultra-low discharge, meaning that waste
generation is virtually elminated,” said
Karl Altergott, president, Dunn-Edwards.
The company also eliminated cardboard boxes for packaging one-gallon
containers and now use heat shrink wrap.
Dunn-Edwards is the only paint plant in
the United States using heat shrink wrap,
the company said. This amounts to a reduction of cardboard consumption by one
million boxes, which equates to approximately 250 tons of cardboard per year.
Altergott reports that energy calcula-
tions on the new plant show a 50 percent
reduction over its two existing operations;
one was first built in the mid-1950s and
the other in the mid-1970s. “Our innova-
tive automation at the new plant is one of
the most comprehensive systems in the in-
dustry and light years beyond what we
had at the older facilities,” he said. “We
are so much more efficient saving time,
money and resources.”
With more than 50 percent more space
than our two former plants combined, this
new plant meets Dunn-Edwards’ needs
for long-term growth and has room to ex-
pand another 40,000 sq. ft.
Tenaris to acquire a 40 percent
stake in Pipe Coaters Nigeria
Ltd.
Tenaris has reached an agreement with
Prime Investment & Corporate Services
Ltd. to acquire a 40 percent stake in Pipe
Coaters Nigeria Ltd., a Nigerian company
located in the Onne Oil & Gas Free Zone.
Pipe Coaters Nigeria Ltd. is one of the
leading companies in the Nigerian pipe
coating industry, offering a wide range of
products such as internal, anticorrosion,
concrete and thermal insulation coatings
for deepwater applications, as well as
other tubular value-added services such
as double jointing. The company has
state-of-the-art facilities extending
150,000 square meters and employs approximately 300 people.
This partnership will combine
Tenaris’s industrial know-how and technical capabilities with PCN’s expertise
and presence in Nigeria, located in the
Onne Oil & Gas Free Zone, among the
largest of its type in the world and in op-
eration since 1996. The joint venture has
been undertaken in order to provide oil
and gas companies working both onshore and offshore with a complete
pipeline package solution made in Nigeria, including pipe coating and ancillary
services, under Tenaris’s project management control.
The investment in Pipe Coaters Nigeria
Ltd is another milestone in Tenaris’s long-term commitment to Nigeria, which
began over 30 years ago with the supply
of OCTG pipe to the local oil and gas industry. In 1998 the company opened its
first representative office in Port Harcourt
and, one year later, built a pipe stocking
area in Onne. In 2004, Tenaris established
its first manufacturing operation, a full
threading facility for OCTG pipe, in
Onne. In 2007 Tenaris acquired a second
threading operation in Warri.
Through the continued expansion of
its local operations, Tenaris is supporting
the industrialization of Nigeria in the oil
and gas sector.
Harris and Harris Group invests
in industrial coatings company
Harris & Harris Group, Inc., has invested
$1.7 million in HzO, Inc., as part of a $7
million Series B Preferred financing. HzO,
Inc., manufactures novel industrial coatings. The company is based in Salt Lake
City, Utah.
The HzO technology is a unique
process to create a nanoscale coatings that
protects electronics against damage caused
by exposure to water, which is the leading
cause of lost function in electronics.
The coating is transparent and can be applied to a variety of surfaces including plastic, metal and glass. In addition to water
repellence, the coating can repel oils, synthetic fluids, hazardous materials, dust and
dirt. HzO is planning to roll out its first
HzO-coated consumer electronic devices
with its partner ZAGG, Inc., in the near
term, and integrate its technology in multiple
industries including automotive, first responder devices, military devices and vehicles, solar energy, and industrial applications.
Harris & Harris Group, Inc., is a publicly traded venture capital firm exclusively
focused on investing in companies enabled
by nanotechnology and microsystems.
