Huntsman to acquire Rockwood’s performance additives and TiO2

Huntsman Corporation and Rockwood Holdings, Inc have entered into a definitive agreement, whereby Huntsman will acquire Rockwood’s Performance Additives and Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) businesses. Under the terms of the agreement Huntsman will pay approximately US$1.1bn in cash and assume unfunded pension liabilities estimated at US$225M as of June 30, 2013.

Peter R Huntsman, President and CEO of Huntsman Corporation, commented: "This acquisition provides a unique opportunity to unlock value within our Pigments business and builds on the strong improvements we have made to its competitiveness. With this combination we will be better positioned to serve customers through a broader product range including colour pigments, functional additives and speciality TiO2 pigments. We will become the second largest global producer of TiO2 and inorganic colour pigments.

"The transaction announced today is the next step in our long term value creation strategy for our pigments business. We anticipate TiO2 demand will continue to recover in the coming quarters and during this time we will be focused on strengthening our world class pigments business and capturing approximately US$130M in expected annual cost savings, to be fully achieved by the end of 2015. We plan to further unlock value through a public offering of our new combined pigments business.”