Huntsman receives another buyout bid
Apollo Management looks to grow its chemicals holdings with proposal
By Dave Hannon -- Purchasing, 7/5/2007 8:50:00 AM
New York-based buyout firm Apollo Management made a proposal Tuesday to buy Huntsman Corp. for $6.35 billion. That bid, made through Apollo’s recently acquired Hexion Specialty Chemicals subsidiary, tops a previous $5.6 billion offer received last week from Dutch plastics firm Basell.
The Huntsman board had unanimously approved the Basell deal but said the Apollo/Hexion offer could "reasonably be expected to lead to a superior proposal," according to Huntsman's news release.
The Hexion deal seems more attractive, analysts say, because it would create a specialty chemicals powerhouse by combining Huntsman’s and Hexion’s adhesives and coatings businesses. Basell is a plastics firm that would buy Huntsman to diversify its product mix.
“The Basell offer seemed fair, but a company that's already engaged in specialty chemicals might be able to extract more synergies and can afford to pay more,” said Marcus Konstanti, a chemicals analyst at Sal. Oppenheim in a recent Bloomberg report.
Specialty chemicals market to shrink 4%
06/19/2009Hexion-Apollo increases bid for Huntsman
07/08/2007Huntsman and Apollo/Hexion terminate merger
01/14/2009Hexion wins out in bid for Huntsman
07/12/2007
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