The proposed merger would temporarily create one of the world’s largest companies, rivaling Germany’s global chemicals powerhouse BASF.
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DuPont and Dow have major footprints all across this region, from DE to New Jersey to Philadelphia to its suburbs The merger would combine two companies that sell agricultural products to millions of farmers around the world, and make a variety of chemicals for consumer and industrial products ranging from electronics, automobiles, and household goods to building materials and safety equipment.
Dow’s presentation said that Dow Corning’s silicones business lies outside Corning’s three core technologies and four manufacturing and engineering platforms at the core of its strategy and capital allocation framework.
DuPont said Friday that current conditions in the agriculture markets and emerging markets will make sales growth “challenging” in 2016.
Also, DuPont has a strong presence in crop protection products, Wagner said, but Dow Agro has been a bit stronger recently at developing new crop protection products, such as its Enlist herbicide that started rolling out this year.
Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co. are already in advanced talks for a merger and deal could be announced in the coming days, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said in a statement combining two titans of American business would require “serious scrutiny” from regulators.
Under the terms of the agreement, Dow will acquire Corning’s 50 percent stake in the joint venture and become the 100 percent owner of Dow Corning, Dow said in a December 11 news release.
Potential tax savings were one reason for the complicated merger-before-breakup deal, analysts said. Like the Dow-DuPont deal, that one involves a possible corporate split later on to form separate companies, one focused on innovative products and the other on generic drugs. “They’re not underperforming as companies, but there are things they could do better”.
Dow chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris will become the executive chairman of the combined company, while DuPont chairman and CEO Edward Breen will be the CEO.
Breen will lead the integration and spin-off of the ag and specialty businesses, while Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris, who will be executive chairman of DowDuPont, will lead the integration and spin-out of the chemicals-and-materials business. In conjunction with the proposed merger, which is subject to regulatory approval, both companies are taking separate restructuring steps.
“DuPont has always been a great partner with our state, and we expect the lines of communication to remain open if anything significant were to materialize”, said Kelly Bachman, a spokeswoman for Delaware Gov. Jack Markell.
DuPont, part of the Dow Jones industrial average, closed down 5.5 percent to $70.44 on Friday.
The companies expect to find $1.3 billion in cost synergies within the combined agriculture company. It plans to slash about 10 percent of its work force and take a pretax charge of $780 million.
The combination will help the companies save about 3 billion in costs in the first two years with the possibility of saving another 1 billion Dow and DuPont said. Just last month, Pfizer and Allergan agreed to merge into a company worth $160 billion.
The material science company would combine DuPont’s performance materials segment with Dow’s performance plastics, performance materials and chemicals, infrastructure solutions, and consumer solutions units, excluding its electronic materials business.
The planned split would create businesses focused on farming, materials and specialty products and it is to be called DowDuPont.
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Joining together Dow and DuPont’s agriculture business would imply pro forma revenue of $19 billion.
