Activist investors try to derail $20bn Clariant/Huntsman merger
Keith Meister and two other US activist investors have bought a stake in the Swiss chemicals group Clariant in the hope of derailing its $20bn merger with US rival Huntsman Corporation.
Mr Meister’s fund Corvex Management as well as 40 North, which is run by David Winter and David Millstone, have amassed the stake, according to a Swiss regulatory filing published on Tuesday morning.
The two said in a joint statement that they had built up a 7.2 per cent stake.
The Clairiant-Huntsman proposed deal is the latest of several in the fast-changing chemicals industry, where companies are striking ever more aggressive transactions to slash costs and gain greater scale. The deal would establish a company with a combined enterprise value of $20bn and Clariant investors would own 52 per cent of the new group, with Huntsman shareholders having the rest.
But the activists said they thought “the proposed merger significantly undervalues Clariant’s shares and that far more value could be created for shareholders through any number of alternative transactions”.
The deal had “no strategic rationale and is in fact a complete reversal of the company’s longstanding strategy of becoming a pure play specialty chemicals company”.