HuntsmanClariant talks progress as merger set for end of 2017

Clariant and Huntsman have agreed a joint strategy for the HuntsmanClariant merger, planning to join by January 2018.

The companies have told their shareholders that the merger will aim for ‘higher growth and higher margin businesses, and expansion of existing strong downstream presence.’

The HuntsmanClariant merger intends to use its matched assets to grow its global reach in established routes to market. Furthermore, HuntsmanClariant will take advantage of its broad asset base while continuing to move downstream into specialties and more differentiated applications

The merger has won approval from market overseers in the US, Europe and China, and managers said they had ‘high confidence in meeting the synergy target in excess of $400m (€341m) as well as the $25m tax saving target.’

The current downstream presence will be expanded by targeting formulation- and application-based segment niches as well as high-end composites, bespoke polyurethane (PU) systems, and costumer oriented and co-developed products. The existing presence in the adaptive chemical methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) and in chemical building blocks such as ethylene oxide (EO) and propylene oxide (PO) is to be further advanced in downstream urethane systems as well as downstream applications such as surfactants.