NEWS OF THE W EEK
DUMPED: Firm cites Huntsman’s
finances, banks’ reluctance as reasons to renege on merger
HU NTS M A N
Morrison
Huntsman
H
EXION SPECIALTY Chemicals filed suit last week seeking to scuttle the blockbuster takeover of Huntsman Corp. that it announced last July. The deal was to combine the two companies into a $14 billion-per-year specialty chemicals powerhouse. Controlled by the private equity firm Apollo Management, Hexion alleges that Huntsman’s increased debt and lower than expected earnings mean that consummating the deal would render the combined company insolvent. Hexion CEO Craig O. Morrison states that the companies “cannot now support the debt load that was agreed to at the time.” Hexion further claims that banks won’t provide the financing necessary to complete the merger. Huntsman says it intends to enforce all its rights under the merger agreement. “These actions appear to be a blatant attempt to deprive our shareholders of the
NATIONAL SERVICE AWARDS ANNOUNCED ACS HONORS: Three chemistry educators will be recognized next year
WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
T
HREE CHEMISTRY EDUCATORS—Glenn and Jane Crosby, retired chemistry educators from Washington State University, and Sister Mary Virginia Orna, a professor of chemistry at the College of New Rochelle, in New York— will receive American Chemical Glenn and Society national awards in 2009. Jane Crosby The Crosbys will receive the Charles Lathrop Parsons Award. Orna will receive the 2009 Award for Volunteer Service to ACS. Both awards consist of $3,000 and a certificate. The Parsons Award usually goes to an individual, but the board of directors made an exception this year. Caltech chemistry professor Harry B. Gray and others refer to the Crosbys as “the dynamic duo” for their work in chemistry education. WWW.C E N- ONLI NE .ORG
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benefits of the merger agreement that was agreed to nearly a year ago,” CEO Peter R. Huntsman says. At the time it was announced, the deal required Huntsman to rebuff a takeover offer made by Basell about a week earlier. Hexion said it would pay $2.00 per share more than Basell’s offer and later raised its offer again, to $28.00 a share, or $10.6 billion including $4 billion in debt. Basell went on to acquire Lyondell Chemical. The Hexion-Huntsman merger has been delayed several times for review by antitrust regulators in both the U.S. and Europe. Most recently, the European Union extended its inquiry deadline to July 30. The two companies have overlapping epoxy resins businesses. The merger was one of numerous big deals announced during the private equity buyout boom of 2007. In the year since, however, the economic climate has worsened. Last month, Huntsman reported that its first-quarter earnings fell to $16.9 million from $57.4 million in the corresponding 2007 quarter. Hexion’s announcement, made after the stock market closed on June 18, caused Huntsman’s stock price to plummet. It ended the day at $20.86 per share and opened on June 19 at $12.37. Laurence Alexander, a stock analyst at Jefferies & Co., wrote in a report to investors that Hexion may end up agreeing to a lower purchase price to avoid prolonged litigation.—MELODY VOITH
Over the past 60 years, the Crosbys have conceived and implemented chemistry education programs including Operation Progress for high school chemistry teachers and the Cougar Summer Science Camp for eighth and ninth graders. Most recently, they have been working with the ACS Division of Chemical Education to endow 10 Orna regional awards for high school chemistry teachers. One of the stipulations for these awards will be that the winners must have been nominated for the ACS James Bryant Conant Award in High School Chemistry Teaching. The Crosbys both turn 80 this year, and Glenn says, “I suspect that this will be our last big endeavor for ACS.” Orna is being honored for significant contributions to the goals and objectives of ACS. The award will recognize her “unstinting service to the society, its council and committees, the Division of Chemical Education and the Division of the History of Chemistry, her students and colleagues, and humanity.” “My religious community’s motto is Serviam—Latin for ‘I will serve’—so it’s natural that this attitude of service would spill over into my professional and scholarly communities,” Orna says. “So many of the ACS goals are congruent with my own personal goals that this award is icing on the cake,” she says.—LINDA RABER
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COURTESY OF MARY VIRGINIA ORNA
BORDEN
HEXION SEEKS TO END HUNTSMAN DEAL
