DuPont has completed the merger of IFF and its Nutrition & Biosciences business.
In connection with the closing of the transaction with IFF, DuPont receives a special cash payment of about $7.3 billion, approximately $5 billion of which will be used to retire debt.
With asset sales completed, the company. is making adjustments to its reporting structure.
Effective February 1, a smaller DuPont will have three business reporting segments: Electronics & Industrial, Mobility & Materials, and Water & Protection.
DuPont has emerged as a smaller company after the merger and spin-off process that including briefly combining with Dow, spinning-off Dow, and DuPont agriscience operations into Corteva, and merging its nutrition and biosciences businesses with IFF. DuPont shareholders will have a slight majority of shares in IFF.
Along the way, DuPont’s Delaware headcount has fallen to about 3,500 from more than 6,000 a decade ago.
Each reporting segment will house what a company release called “market-leading businesses with deep expertise, differentiated products and technologies, and the capabilities necessary to win with customers, outperform their peers, and deliver shareholder value.”
Ed Breen, DuPont CEO, stated, “We enter 2021 in a position of strength. DuPont today is a premier multi-industrial company, well equipped to drive organic growth and expand our businesses through select and targeted M&A. We have the right businesses, products and structure to meet the needs of our customers and capitalize on significant growth trends in our chosen end-markets. Our new structure combines businesses with common financial characteristics, enabling clear line of sight and more effective allocation of resources across the company. Each has a meaningful growth profile, with a management team that understands how to best execute on its priorities and deliver for shareholders.”
DuPont also announced it has concluded the strategic review of what it views as non-core businesses.
In connection with this move, the company announced it has entered into a definitive agreement with an international private equity consortium to sell the DuPont Clean Technologies business for $510 million.
The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
Additionally, DuPont has concluded that it is in the best position to drive value for Tedlar, Microcircuit Materials and the DuPont Teijin Films JV and has realigned these businesses to Mobility & Materials.
Breen continued, “I salute our employees who have demonstrated their resolve through a long period of transition and ongoing challenges of the pandemic. Their emphasis on our Core Values, and support of our customers and each other, has helped build the strong foundation we stand on today, poised to grow as the global economy moves toward recovery.”
While analysts see DuPont running more efficiently under Breen, the DuPont restructuring has led some to predict that Breen is headed the path he took at Tyco, a conglomerate rocked by financial scandals. Unlike Tyco, financial scandals were not an issue at DuPont. Still, Tyco no longer exists, since all of its businesses have been sold off.
The company will provide additional details on the segments during its fourth-quarter earnings webcast with investors on February 9.
