DuPont and The Dow Chemical Company announced that China’s Ministry of Commerce has granted conditional regulatory approval of their proposed merger of equals.
The approval is conditional on DuPont and Dow fulfilling commitments given in connection with the clearance.
Specifically, and consistent with commitments already made to obtain the European Commission’s regulatory approval for the proposed merger of equals, Dow and DuPont will divest certain parts of DuPont’s crop protection portfolio and research and development pipeline and organization and Dow’s global Ethylene Acrylic Acid copolymers and ionomers business.
As part of the agreement, FMC and DuPont will swap businesses. That will lead to DuPont acquiring an ingredients business with a plant in Newark going to DuPont and FMC acquiring a portion of DuPont’s crop protection business including a part of the Stine-Haskell labs near Newark.
After the merger of Dow andDuPont, the combined company will be spun off into three publicly traded companies. Two of three comapnies will be headquartered in Delaware.
In addition, Dow and DuPont have made commitments related to the supply and distribution in China of certain herbicide and insecticide ingredients and formulations for rice crops for five years after the closing of the proposed merger of equals.
On March 27, the European Commission conditionally approved the merger. The companies reaffirm their expectation for
The companies reaffirm their expectation for closing of the merger to occur between August 1, 2017 and September 1, 2017, with the intended spin-offs to occur within 18 months of closing.
The companies expect that the first step of the intended separation process will be the spin-off of the Materials Science Company, assuming it allows for the completion of all intended spin-offs within 18 months of merger closing and would not adversely impact the value of the intended spin-offs, a release stated.
The other two companies that would be based in Delaware are specialty products and agriculture. The agriculture business is expected to include the DuPont name.
