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     chemicals and plastics

This page provides benchmarks by considering acquisitions and disposals in the chemicals and plastics sectors.

It covers -

• landmarks
• studies

Pharmaceutical and health sector M&A benchmarks are highlighted later in this note.

     landmarks

Chemical industry landmarks since 1999 include -

• BASF agrees to buy Ciba for US$5.5bn in 2008
• Ashland agrees to buy Hercules Inc for US$2.6bn in 2008
• Dow Chemical agrees to buy Rohm & Haas for US$15.3bn in 2008
• Basell agrees to buy Lyondell Chemical for US$12.1bn in 2007
• Apollo Management agrees to buy Huntsman for US$6.5bn in 2007
• General Electric agrees to sell its plastics division to Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) for US$11.6bn in 2007
• Ineos agrees to pay £460m for Kerling polymers arm of Norsk Hydro in 2007
• ICI sells Quest fragrance and flavours division to Givaudan for £1.2bn in 2006
• ICI sells Uniqema to Croda International for £410m in 2006
• Linde bids US$14bn for BOC in 2006
• BASF agrees to buy Degussa's construction materials unit for €2.2bn in 2006
• RAG buys 43% of Degussa from E.ON for €2.8bn in 2005
• Bayer spins off its chemicals arm and part of its polymers arm as Lanxess for US$3.21bn in 2005
• Access Industries consortium buys Basell from BASF and Shell for US$5.7bn in 2005
• Cytec Industries buys UCB’s surface speciality arm for US$1.8 bn in 2005
• Texas Pacific buys British Vita for US$1.3bn in 2005
• Industri Kapital sells Dyno Nobel to Macquarie Bank consortium for US$1.7bn in 2005
• Monsanto buys seed company Seminis for US$1.4bn in 2005
• China National Chemical Corp buys Qenos from Orica and Exxon for $200m in 2005
• Crompton and Great Lakes Chemical merge in US$1.6bn deal in 2005
• BP petrochemicals subsidiary Innovene acquired by Ineos in 2005
• Macquarie Bank consortium buys Dyno Nobel Holding ASA for US$1.7bn in 2005
• Lyondell Chemical and Millennium Chemicals merge in 2004
• China National Chemical Corp formed by merger of China National Bluestar Group and China Haohua Chemical Industrial Corp in 2004
• Apollo Management buys Borden Chemical from KKR for US$1.2bn in 2004
• KKR consortium pays US$2.7bn for Dynamit Nobel in 2004
• Blackstone buys Celanese for US$3.8bn and ICI's Vinamul resins arm in 2004
• Norsk Hydro spins off agrochemicals business as Yara International, for US$1.5bn in 2004
• Atofina spins off from Total as Arkema in 2004
• Air Liquide buys Messer Griesham for US$3.4bn in 2004
• Koch Industries buys Invista from DuPont for US$4.2bn in 2004
• Blackstone buys Celanese for US$3.8bn in 2004
• LG Chem and Honam Petrochemical buy Hyundai Petrochemicals for US$1.6bn in 2003
• DSM buys vitamins and fine chemicals unit of Roche for US$2bn in 2003
• Compton sells Crompton Organosilicones to General Electric for US$1.06bn in 2003
• Suez sells Ondeo Nalco to Blackstone consortium for US$4.35bn in 2003
• Bayer CropScience acquired by BASF for US$1.4bn in 2003
• Dow Chemical buys Union Carbide for US$9.3bn in 2001
• Degussa-Hüls pays £1.36bn for Laporte in 2000
• ICI sells remaining industrial chemicals businesses to Ineos for £325m in 2000

Landmarks in the 1990s were -

• AstraZeneca sells Zeneca Specialities to Cinven for £1.25bn in 1999
• DuPont pays US$7.7bn for Pioneer Hi-Bred in 1999
• ICI sells aromatics and Tioxide Group to Huntsman for £1.7bn in 1999
• Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux buys Nalco Chemical for US$4.1bn in 1999
• Sumitomo Chemical and Mitsui Chemicals merge ABS resin operations in 1999
• Qenos formed through amalgamation of Kemcor and Orica Polythene in 1999
• Denki Kagaku Kogyo (DENKA), Nippon Steel Chemical and Daicel Chemical Industries merge polystyrene operations as Toyo Styrene in 1999
• DuPont pays US$7.7bn for remaining 80% of Pioneer Hi-bred International in 1999
• Mitsubishi Chemical spins off healthcare division as Mitsubishi-Tokyo Pharmaceuticals in 1999
• Hoechst sells its 45% holding in Clariant for €2.8bn in 1999
• Mitsubishi Chemical merge with Tokyo Tanabe in 1999
• Rhodia spins off  from  Rhône-Poulenc in 1998
• Du Pont sells 30% of Conoco in IPO for US$4.4bn in 1998
• Inspec sells Ineos for £90m in 1998
• Mitsubishi Chemical and Asahi Chemical Industry Corporation (later Asahi Kasei Chemicals) merge polystyrene operations in 1998
• Orica buys ICI's explosives operations in 1998
• Akzo Nobel pays £1.8bn for Courtaulds in 1998
• ICI buys Williams Holdings' DIY division in 1998
• Ciba Speciality Chemicals pays £1.42bn for Allied Colloids in 1998
• ICI buys National Starch & Chemical Company in 1997
• Mitsui Petrochemical Industries merges with Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals as Mitsui Chemicals in 1997
• ICI sells polyester businesses to DuPont for US$3bn in 1997
• Hoechst sells Australian polyolefin operations to Kemcor Australia in 1997
• ICI spins off ICI Australia (later Orica) in 1997
• Unilever sells speciality chemicals businesses (Crosfields, Unichema etc) to ICI for £4.9bn in 1997
• Mitsubishi Chemical and Tonen Chemical merge polyethylene and polypropylene operations in 1996
• American Home Products buys American Cyanamid for US$9bn in 1996
• Monsanto sells plastics arm to Bayer for US$5.8bn in 1996
• Showa Denko and Nippon Petrochemicals merge polyethylene and polypropylene operations as Japan Polyolefin in 1995
• Mitsubishi Kasei Corporation merges with Mitsubishi Petrochemical to form Mitsubishi Chemical in 1994
• ICI spins off pharmaecutical arm as Zeneca in 1993
• Hanson buys Quantum Chemicals for US$3.4bn in 1991

Landmarks prior to the 1990s include

• ICI acquires Stauffer Chemical in 1987
• Union Carbide sells Ever Ready to Ralston Purina for US$1.4bn in 1986
• Du Pont spins off PVC operations as US$600m Vista Chemical in 1984
• Du Pont buys Conoco in 1981
• Dow sells oil & gas operations to Apache Petroleum and Dome for US$490m in 1982
• ICI buys Produits Chimiques Ugine Kuhlmann (PCUK) in 1982
• Kuhlmann acquired by Pechiney-Ugine in 1972
• Ciba and Geigy merge as Ciba-Geigy in 1970
• Hoechst absorbs Cassella in 1969
• Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals merges with Toyo Koatsu and Mitsui Chemical Industries in 1968
• Montecatani and Edison merge as Montedison in 1966
• Crompton & Knowles buy Althouse Chemical in 1954
• ICI buys Arnold Hoffman & Co in 1950

Landmarks prior to 1946 were -

• Allies restructure IG Farben in 1945
• Sumitomo absorbs Japanese Dyestuffs Manufacturing Co. in 1944
• ICI buys Soledon in 1934
• ICI acquirese British Alizarine Company in 1931
• American Cyanamid buys Heller & Merz in 1930
• Du Pont buys Roessler & Haaslacher in 1930
• American Cyanamid buys Calco in 1929
• IG Farben buys Chemische Fabrik Rohner in 1928
• Du Pont buys Gracelli Chemical in 1928
• ICI buys Scottish Dyes in 1928
• Imperial Chemical Industries formed through merger of Brunner Mond, Nobel Industries, British Dyestuffs and United Alkali in 1926
• IG Farben Industrie formed in 1925
• Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation formed in 1920
• British Dyestuffs Corporation formed through merger of Huddersfield- British Dyes and Levinstein in 1919
• Schoellkopf, William Beckers Aniline & Chemicals Works, Century Colors Corporation and Benzol Products Company merge as National Aniline & Chemical Company (NACCO) in 1917
• United Alkali Company formed in 1890

     studies

Pointers to literature on the chemicals and plastics industries (and to individual groups) are found in a supplementary note here.

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