Print Edition
August 2010 
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Mitsubishi Chemical Chases Former Division |
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Muazzin Mehrban, November 2009 |
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(19 November 2009)
Japan’s largest chemical manufacturer, Mitsubishi Chemical, has offered $2.4bn for its former unit, the resin maker Mitsubishi Rayon, according to a report in the Financial Times. Mitsubishi, which is looking to diversify into high-margin speciality products, has had its offer approved by Rayon’s management, and could see the unit back under its former parent’s control after 60 years of independence.
Mitsubishi is offering Rayon a 40 percent premium over its closing price on Wednesday, and shares in Rayon closed 27 percent higher after the announcement.
Rayon was forcibly spun off by its then owners Mitsubishi in the 1950s, as part of the dismantling trend of Japan’s family-owned conglomerates.
Yoshimitsu Kobayashi, the chief executive of Mitsubishi Chemical, is looking to reduce his company’s dependence on general use petrochemical products, which have fallen in price because of competition from low cost producers.
In a joint statement, the companies said coming together would give them the scale required to “survive amid expected increasingly severe global competition.”
Rayon is currently the world’s biggest producer of ethyl methacrylate, a basic chemical component of acrylic plastics.
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