US: Dow Chemical to sell copolymer unit to facilitate antitrust approval

Midland-based Dow Chemical Co. is seeking a buyer for a unit that makes copolymers used in food packaging in what will be the first disposal of many needed to gain antitrust approval for its $59 billion merger with US chemicals maker DuPont Co., according to people with knowledge of the situation.

The company has hired a financial adviser to manage the sale of the business, which generates about $150 million in annual revenue supplying ethylene acrylic acid copolymers, said the people, who asked not to be identified because details of the process are private. Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont is also drawing up a list of potential disposals, said the people.

Dow and DuPont are pushing to complete their planned merger by the end of the year, and competitors are circling for any assets that are cast off to remove any overlaps that regulators could use to block the deal. The combined company plans to split into three independent and more focused businesses. In doing so, they would create the world’s largest packaging polymers supplier slated to be part of a division run by Dow CEO Andrew Liveris.

Full Content: Bloomberg

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