After its successful battle with Basel/Access Industries a year ago to buy Huntsman Corporation, Hexion Specialty Chemicals, and its parent Apollo Management, are now trying to pull out of the deal. This has prompted Huntsman to accuse Apollo of deliberately misleading shareholders with an offer it never intended to honour.
Huntsman, said to be the world’s largest manufacturer of epoxy adhesive, has extended a merger agreement with Apollo/Hexion as it seeks a legal route by filing documents in Delaware to force Hexion to honour its US$6.54bn takeover deal.
Meanwhile, Hexion sued Huntsman in Delaware in June to terminate the deal, saying the combined company would be insolvent. Huntsman responded by suing New York-based Apollo and partners Leon Black and Joshua Harris in a Texas court, seeking more than US$3bn. Salt Lake City-based Huntsman runs its operations from The Woodlands, Texas.
“We continue to believe the combined companies are solvent,said Huntsman’s ceo Peter Huntsman. “This is all just a smoke screen by Apollo to try to get out of this deal, and we are not going to let them do that.”
The combined company would be one of the world’s largest speciality-chemical makers, with annual sales exceeding US$14bn, 21,000 employees and 180 facilities, according to Apollo. Hexion is the major producer of adhesives used in plywood.
