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Mergers & Acquisitions
C&EN CENTENNIAL
C&EN looks back at the mergers and sales that made today’s chemical giants
How dealmaking shaped some of the chemical industry’s major players
by Alexander H. Tullo
June 23, 2023
| A version of this story appeared in
Volume 101, Issue 20
A prominent part of C&EN’s business coverage over the years has been stories about corporate mergers and acquisitions, or M&As. They are some of the most exciting stories that we write. We wake up to the news that a chemical company we have long known will be acquired and absorbed into another, usually bigger, firm. Transaction amounts are eye popping, in the tens of billions of dollars for big deals nowadays. And executives try to dazzle investors with explanations of why the two businesses will be stronger in combination than they are as separate entities.
Familiar names like Ciba, GE Plastics, Rohm and Haas, and Union Carbide disappeared from the scene through single large deals. Other companies, such as Hoechst and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), were whittled away through many transactions.
Other times, new companies are created when parts of large chemical makers are spun off or sold to investors. Chemours, Corteva Agriscience, and Trinseo, for example, are now prominent names in the chemical industry thanks to this process.
As part of C&EN’s centennial celebration, we are highlighting the transformative nature of M&A with the following timeline infographics. They chronicle the dealmaking histories of six chemical companies that, through mergers, acquisitions, sales, and spin-offs, did much to reshape the structure of the industry.
Four of them are the traditional companies DuPont, Solvay, BASF, and Dow. All four originated before C&EN was born. All of them have humble beginnings in a single product line: gunpowder for DuPont, soda ash for Solvay, dyes for BASF, and bromine for Dow. All found themselves diversifying in the 20th century, particularly after World War II. And all once had pharmaceutical businesses.
We also selected two relatively new firms: Sabic and Ineos. C&EN covered the birth of both companies. Sabic grew as a development project of the government of Saudi Arabia. Ineos’s beginning was entrepreneurial, and it grew almost entirely by acquiring businesses from more traditional chemical companies.
All six firms have been significantly remodeled over the years, but all are survivors in a consolidating industry. Of course, the timelines take us only to the present. We could wake up one day to find that one of these companies is the latest to be consumed in a merger.
In addition to being one of the foundational companies of the US chemical industry, DuPont’s reach has extended far beyond chemistry. DuPont was an early investor in General Motors and owned a stake in the carmaker well into the 1960s. The companies collaborated in areas such as Freon refrigerant through their Kinetic Chemicals joint venture. DuPont’s $7.4 billion takeover of the oil company Conoco in 1981 was the largest-ever transaction at the time. Recent years have seen DuPont shedding traditional businesses. Fibers went with its sale of Invista to Koch Industries in 2004. It spun off Chemours, a maker of titanium dioxide and refrigerants, in 2015. The merger and subsequent split with Dow Chemical took DuPont out of agricultural chemicals and seeds. Last year, DuPont sold Celanese its engineering polymer unit, which held the last vestige of its business in nylon 6,6.
Sources: C&EN reporting, company documents.
Transaction prices are not included when they weren’t available or didn’t apply.
| Acquisition | Sale | Joint venture/Other |
-
Founded 1802
-
Deal: Buys rival explosives company Laflin & Rand Powder
Counterparty: Laflin & Rand Powder
-
Deal: Buys artificial leather company Fabrikoid
Counterparty: Fabrikoid
-
Deal: Spins off gun powder makers Hercules Powder and Atlas Powder
Counterparty: Hercules Powder and Atlas Powder
-
Deal: Buys paint and chemical company Harrison Brothers
Counterparty: Harrison Brothers
-
Deal: Forms Freon joint venture Kinetic Chemicals
Counterparty: General Motors
-
Deal: Buys dye and organic chemical maker Newport Chemical
Counterparty: Newport Chemical
-
Deal: Sells approximately 23% of auto company General Motors' stock
Counterparty: General Motors
Transaction price: $1.2 billion
-
Deal: Buys oil and gas firm Conoco
Counterparty: Conoco
Transaction price: $7.4 billion
-
Deal: Buys polyester resin, intermediates, and film units
Counterparty: ICI
Transaction price: $2.25 billion
-
Deal: Sells polyethylene terephthalate resin business
Counterparty: Alpek
Deal: Buys photoresist specialist ChemFirst
Counterparty: ChemFirst
Transaction price: $408 million
Deal: Agricultural chemical business Corteva Agriscience splits from DowDuPont
Counterparty: DowDuPont
Deal: Buys electronic materials maker Laird Performance Materials
Counterparty: Laird Performance Materials
Transaction price: $2.3 billion
The Solvay synthetic soda ash process, developed in the 1860s, made Solvay a major chemical company by the turn of the century. It was family owned until its initial public offering in 1967. And the firm was pivotal to the founding of Allied Chemical, which is part of present-day Honeywell, and once owned a large stake in the British firm ICI. Solvay grew with Europe’s recovery after World War II and got into polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other polymers. In recent years it has been transforming into a specialty chemical maker. It divested PVC through transactions with Ineos. It purchased the French chemical giant Rhodia in 2011 and the US aerospace material specialist Cytec Industries in 2015. Solvay has retained the soda ash business all these years, though it has plans to split into two companies—one focused on commodities like soda ash and another on specialty chemicals.
Sources: C&EN reporting, company documents.
Transaction prices are not included when they weren’t available or didn’t apply.
| Acquisition | Sale | Joint venture/Other |
-
Founded 1863
-
Deal: Forms Allied Chemical & Dye in US
Counterparty: Solvay Process and Semet-Solvay
-
Deal: Forms polyvinyl chloride joint venture Solvic
Counterparty: Imperial Chemical Industries
-
Deal: Sells 50% stake in polyvinyl chloride joint venture Inovyn
Counterparty: Ineos
Transaction price: $400 million
When BASF became independent again in 1952 after 27 years as part of IG Farben, it was centered on a single production site, in Ludwigshafen, Germany. What is today the world’s largest chemical maker wasn’t even the largest chemical producer in Germany at the time. That was Bayer. Acquisitions helped BASF grow, diversify, and internationalize. The Dow Badische Chemical joint venture, formed in 1958, and the Wyandotte Chemicals acquisition in 1969 established a US infrastructure for BASF. For the past 25 years, the company has been honing its portfolio. It sold its pharmaceutical business to Abbott Laboratories in 2001. A series of transactions put its polyolefin and styrenic resin businesses in the hands of LyondellBasell Industries and Ineos, respectively. Major purchases during this period—including Engelhard in 2006 and Ciba in 2009—emphasized value-added chemistry rather than commodities.
Sources: C&EN reporting, company documents.
Transaction prices are not included when they weren’t available or didn’t apply.
| Acquisition | Sale | Joint venture/Other |
-
Founded 1865
-
Deal: Merges with dye suppliers Knosp and Siegle
Counterparty: Knosp and Siegle
-
Deal: Buys coatings business Glasurit-Werke M. Winkelmann
Counterparty: Glasurit-Werke M. Winkelmann
-
Deal: Forms polyolefin joint venture Elenac
Counterparty: Shell
-
Deal: Forms enlarged dye joint venture DyStar
Counterparty: Bayer and Hoechst
-
Deal: Buys construction material business
Counterparty: Degussa
Transaction price: $2.6 billion
-
Deal: Forms styrenic resin joint venture Styrolution
Counterparty: Ineos
-
Deal: Buys surface chemistry business Chemetall
Counterparty: Albemarle
Transaction price: $3.2 billion
-
Deal: Buys polyamide business
Counterparty: Solvay
Transaction price: $1.5 billion
Dow isn’t a serial dealmaker, but the transactions it has made have been transformative. Buying Union Carbide in 2001 strengthened Dow’s petrochemical and polyethylene operations. Rohm and Haas made it a huge player in specialty chemicals. And the merger with DuPont allowed Dow to divest its agricultural chemical unit to form Corteva Agriscience while gaining DuPont businesses that paired well with its own, such as DuPont’s packaging resin franchise. All the while, Dow cleaned up its portfolio with divestitures, such as the sale of its chlorine chemical business to Olin and its styrenic resin unit to private equity firm to form what is now called Trinseo.
Sources: C&EN reporting, company documents.
Transaction prices are not included when they weren’t available or didn’t apply.
| Acquisition | Sale | Joint venture/Other |
-
Founded 1897
-
Deal: Merges with bromine maker Midland Chemical
Counterparty: Midland Chemical
-
Deal: Buys chlorine maker Great Western Electro-Chemical
Counterparty: Great Western Electro-Chemical
Transaction price: $10 million
-
Deal: Forms silicone joint venture Dow Corning
Counterparty: Corning
-
Deal: Forms agricultural chemical joint venture DowElanco
Counterparty: Eli Lilly and Company
-
Deal: Sells consumer product business DowBrands
Counterparty: S.C. Johnson & Son
Transaction price: $1.1 billion
-
Deal: Buys nitroalkane maker Angus Chemical
Counterparty: TransCanada Pipelines
Transaction price: $350 million
-
Deal: Sells ethanolamine business
Counterparty: Ineos
-
Deal: Forms two joint ventures: MEGlobal for ethylene glycol and Equipolymers for polyethylene terephthalate
Counterparty: Petrochemical Industries Company
-
Deal: Buys remaining 50% stake in silicone maker Dow Corning
Counterparty: Corning
Transaction price: $4.8 billion
Sabic has an origin unlike that of any other major chemical company. In the 1970s, Saudi Arabia was a big oil exporter. But the country didn’t have a market for the ethane and methane that came out of the ground along with the oil. Saudi Basic Industries Corporation was established in 1976, in part, to end the practice of “flaring” these gases by upgrading them into exportable chemicals. During its first decade, Sabic formed joint ventures with major foreign firms such as Exxon Chemical, Shell, and Mitsubishi Corporation to build massive petrochemical complexes in Saudi Arabia. In the aughts, the company grew internationally with the acquisition of European petrochemical businesses from DSM and Huntsman. The purchase of GE Plastics was a major leap internationally and added specialty materials to Sabic’s offerings.
Sources: C&EN reporting, company documents.
Transaction prices are not included when they weren’t available or didn’t apply.
| Acquisition | Sale | Joint venture/Other |
-
Founded 1976
-
Deal: Forms National Methanol (Ibn Sina)
Counterparty: Celanese and others
-
Deal: Forms Saudi Methanol (Ar-Razi)
Counterparty: Mitsubishi Gas Chemical
-
Deal: Forms Eastern Petrochemical (Sharq)
Counterparty: Mitsubishi Corporation
-
Deal: Forms Al-Jubail Petrochemical (Kemya)
Counterparty: Exxon Chemical
-
Deal: Forms Saudi Petrochemical (Sadaf)
Counterparty: Shell
-
Deal: Forms joint venture to purchase process technology firm Scientific Design from Linde
Counterparty: Süd-Chemie
-
Deal: Buys 50% stake in process technology firm Scientific Design
Counterparty: Clariant
Transaction price: $130 million
Founded in 1998, the British company is one of the youngest of the world’s major chemical makers. Ineos’s rapid growth is primarily the result of acquisitions of older operations cast off by more established firms. But Ineos doesn’t purchase chemical plants willy-nilly; its transactions over the years fit logical patterns. For example, through a series of deals, the company has reassembled the old BP Chemicals. The biggest of those deals was its $9 billion purchase of BP’s petrochemical and polyolefin business Innovene. It was followed by purchases of BP’s aromatics business and a 50% stake in the petrochemical complex Shanghai Secco Petrochemical in China, originally a BP joint venture with Sinopec. Ineos has also been a consolidator in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and styrenic resins. Major PVC acquisitions include EVC, and Solvay’s PVC business. In styrenics, it has purchased assets from Lanxess and BASF.
Sources: C&EN reporting, company documents.
Transaction prices are not included when they weren’t available or didn’t apply.
| Acquisition | Sale | Joint venture/Other |
-
Founded 1998
-
Deal: Buys ethanolamine business
Counterparty: Dow
-
Deal: Buys majority of polyvinyl chloride maker EVC
Counterparty: EVC
Transaction price: $70 million
-
Deal: Buys remaining interest in polyvinyl chloride EVC
Counterparty: EVC
-
Deal: Forms styrenic resin joint venture Styrolution
Counterparty: BASF
-
Deal: Buys remaining 50% stake in polyvinyl chloride joint venture Inovyn
Counterparty: Solvay
Transaction price: $400 million
In addition to being one of the foundational companies of the US chemical industry, DuPont’s reach has extended far beyond chemistry. DuPont was an early investor in General Motors and owned a stake in the carmaker well into the 1960s. The companies collaborated in areas such as Freon refrigerant through their Kinetic Chemicals joint venture. DuPont’s $7.4 billion takeover of the oil company Conoco in 1981 was the largest-ever transaction at the time. Recent years have seen DuPont shedding traditional businesses. Fibers went with its sale of Invista to Koch Industries in 2004. It spun off Chemours, a maker of titanium dioxide and refrigerants, in 2015. The merger and subsequent split with Dow Chemical took DuPont out of agricultural chemicals and seeds. Last year, DuPont sold Celanese its engineering polymer unit, which held the last vestige of its business in nylon 6,6.
Sources: C&EN reporting, company documents.
Transaction prices are not included when they weren’t available or didn’t apply.
| Acquisition | Sale | ||
| Joint venture/Other |
1902
Deal: Buys rival explosives company Laflin & Rand Powder
Counterparty:Laflin & Rand Powder
1902
Deal: Buys rival explosives company Laflin & Rand Powder
Counterparty:Laflin & Rand Powder
1913
Deal: Spins off gun powder makers Hercules Powder and Atlas Powder
Counterparty:Hercules Powder and Atlas Powder
1931
Deal: Forms Freon joint venture Kinetic Chemicals
Counterparty:General Motors
1931
Deal: Buys dye and organic chemical maker Newport Chemical
Counterparty:Newport Chemical
1965
Deal: Sells approximately 23% of auto company General Motors' stock
Counterparty:General Motors
Transaction price:$1.2 billion
1981
Deal: Buys oil and gas firm Conoco
Counterparty:Conoco
Transaction price:$7.4 billion
1998
Deal: Buys polyester resin, intermediates, and film units
Counterparty:ICI
Transaction price:$2.25 billion
2001
Deal: Sells polyethylene terephthalate resin business
Counterparty:Alpek
2002
Deal: Buys photoresist specialist ChemFirst
Counterparty:ChemFirst
Transaction price:$408 million
2017
Deal: Merges with Dow Chemical
Counterparty:Dow Chemical
Transaction price:$150 billion (market capitalization of the combined firm)
2019
Deal: Agricultural chemical business Corteva Agriscience splits from DowDuPont
Counterparty:DowDuPont
2021
Deal: Buys electronic materials maker Laird Performance Materials
Counterparty:Laird Performance Materials
Transaction price:$2.3 billion
The Solvay synthetic soda ash process, developed in the 1860s, made Solvay a major chemical company by the turn of the century. It was family owned until its initial public offering in 1967. And the firm was pivotal to the founding of Allied Chemical, which is part of present-day Honeywell, and once owned a large stake in the British firm ICI. Solvay grew with Europe’s recovery after World War II and got into polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other polymers. In recent years it has been transforming into a specialty chemical maker. It divested PVC through transactions with Ineos. It purchased the French chemical giant Rhodia in 2011 and the US aerospace material specialist Cytec Industries in 2015. Solvay has retained the soda ash business all these years, though it has plans to split into two companies—one focused on commodities like soda ash and another on specialty chemicals.
Sources: C&EN reporting, company documents.
Transaction prices are not included when they weren’t available or didn’t apply.
| Acquisition | Sale | ||
| Joint venture/Other |
1920
Deal: Forms Allied Chemical & Dye in US
Counterparty:Solvay Process and Semet-Solvay
1949
Deal: Forms polyvinyl chloride joint venture Solvic
Counterparty:Imperial Chemical Industries
2016
Deal: Sells 50% stake in polyvinyl chloride joint venture Inovyn
Counterparty:Ineos
Transaction price:$400 million
When BASF became independent again in 1952 after 27 years as part of IG Farben, it was centered on a single production site, in Ludwigshafen, Germany. What is today the world’s largest chemical maker wasn’t even the largest chemical producer in Germany at the time. That was Bayer. Acquisitions helped BASF grow, diversify, and internationalize. The Dow Badische Chemical joint venture, formed in 1958, and the Wyandotte Chemicals acquisition in 1969 established a US infrastructure for BASF. For the past 25 years, the company has been honing its portfolio. It sold its pharmaceutical business to Abbott Laboratories in 2001. A series of transactions put its polyolefin and styrenic resin businesses in the hands of LyondellBasell Industries and Ineos, respectively. Major purchases during this period—including Engelhard in 2006 and Ciba in 2009—emphasized value-added chemistry rather than commodities.
Sources: C&EN reporting, company documents.
Transaction prices are not included when they weren’t available or didn’t apply.
| Acquisition | Sale | ||
| Joint venture/Other |
1873
Deal: Merges with dye suppliers Knosp and Siegle
Counterparty:Knosp and Siegle
1958
Deal: Forms joint venture Dow Badische Chemical
Counterparty:Dow
1965
Deal: Buys coatings business Glasurit-Werke M. Winkelmann
Counterparty:Glasurit-Werke M. Winkelmann
2000
Deal: Forms polyolefin joint venture Basell
Counterparty:Shell
2006
Deal: Forms styrenic resin joint venture Styrolution
Counterparty:Ineos
2020
Deal: Buys polyamide business
Counterparty:Solvay
Transaction price:$1.5 billion
Dow isn’t a serial dealmaker, but the transactions it has made have been transformative. Buying Union Carbide in 2001 strengthened Dow’s petrochemical and polyethylene operations. Rohm and Haas made it a huge player in specialty chemicals. And the merger with DuPont allowed Dow to divest its agricultural chemical unit to form Corteva Agriscience while gaining DuPont businesses that paired well with its own, such as DuPont’s packaging resin franchise. All the while, Dow cleaned up its portfolio with divestitures, such as the sale of its chlorine chemical business to Olin and its styrenic resin unit to private equity firm to form what is now called Trinseo.
Sources: C&EN reporting, company documents.
Transaction prices are not included when they weren’t available or didn’t apply.
| Acquisition | Sale | ||
| Joint venture/Other |
1900
Deal: Merges with bromine maker Midland Chemical
Counterparty:Midland Chemical
1939
Deal: Buys chlorine maker Great Western Electro-Chemical
Counterparty:Great Western Electro-Chemical
1943
Deal: Forms silicone joint venture Dow Corning
Counterparty:Corning
1989
Deal: Forms agricultural chemical joint venture DowElanco
Counterparty:Eli Lilly and Company
1998
Deal: Sells consumer product business DowBrands
Counterparty:S.C. Johnson & Son
Transaction price:$1.1 billion
1999
Deal: Buys nitroalkane maker Angus Chemical
Counterparty:TransCanada Pipelines
Transaction price:$350 million
2001
Deal: Sells ethanolamine business
Counterparty:Ineos
2004
Deal: Forms two joint ventures: MEGlobal for ethylene glycol and Equipolymers for polyethylene terephthalate
Counterparty:Petrochemical Industries Company
2016
Deal: Buys remaining 50% stake in silicone maker Dow Corning
Counterparty:Corning
Transaction price:$4.8 billion
Sabic has an origin unlike that of any other major chemical company. In the 1970s, Saudi Arabia was a big oil exporter. But the country didn’t have a market for the ethane and methane that came out of the ground along with the oil. Saudi Basic Industries Corporation was established in 1976, in part, to end the practice of “flaring” these gases by upgrading them into exportable chemicals. During its first decade, Sabic formed joint ventures with major foreign firms such as Exxon Chemical, Shell, and Mitsubishi Corporation to build massive petrochemical complexes in Saudi Arabia. In the aughts, the company grew internationally with the acquisition of European petrochemical businesses from DSM and Huntsman. The purchase of GE Plastics was a major leap internationally and added specialty materials to Sabic’s offerings.
Sources: C&EN reporting, company documents.
Transaction prices are not included when they weren’t available or didn’t apply.
| Acquisition | Sale | ||
| Joint venture/Other |
1981
Deal: Forms National Methanol (Ibn Sina)
Counterparty:Celanese and others
1983
Deal: Forms Saudi Methanol (Ar-Razi)
Counterparty:Mitsubishi Gas Chemical
1985
Deal: Forms Eastern Petrochemical (Sharq)
Counterparty:Mitsubishi Corporation
1985
Deal: Forms Al-Jubail Petrochemical (Kemya)
Counterparty:Exxon Chemical
1985
Deal: Forms Saudi Petrochemical (Sadaf)
Counterparty:Shell
Transaction price:$1.2 billion
1998
Deal: Forms joint venture to purchase process technology firm Scientific Design from Linde
Counterparty:Süd-Chemie
2022
Deal: Buys 50% stake in process technology firm Scientific Design
Counterparty:Clariant
Transaction price:$130 million
Founded in 1998, the British company is one of the youngest of the world’s major chemical makers. Ineos’s rapid growth is primarily the result of acquisitions of older operations cast off by more established firms. But Ineos doesn’t purchase chemical plants willy-nilly; its transactions over the years fit logical patterns. For example, through a series of deals, the company has reassembled the old BP Chemicals. The biggest of those deals was its $9 billion purchase of BP’s petrochemical and polyolefin business Innovene. It was followed by purchases of BP’s aromatics business and a 50% stake in the petrochemical complex Shanghai Secco Petrochemical in China, originally a BP joint venture with Sinopec. Ineos has also been a consolidator in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and styrenic resins. Major PVC acquisitions include EVC, and Solvay’s PVC business. In styrenics, it has purchased assets from Lanxess and BASF.
Sources: C&EN reporting, company documents.
Transaction prices are not included when they weren’t available or didn’t apply.
| Acquisition | Sale | ||
| Joint venture/Other |
2001
Deal: Buys ethanolamine business
Counterparty:Dow
2001
Deal: Buys Phenolchemie
Counterparty:Degussa
Transaction price:$378 million
2011
Deal: Forms styrenic resin joint venture Styrolution
Counterparty:BASF
2016
Deal: Buys remaining 50% stake in polyvinyl chloride joint venture Inovyn
Counterparty:Solvay
Transaction price:$400 million
DuPont
In addition to being one of the foundational companies of the US chemical industry, DuPont’sreach has extended far beyond chemistry. DuPont was an early investor in General Motors and owned a stake in the carmaker well into the 1960s. The companies collaborated in areas such as Freon refrigerant through their Kinetic Chemicals joint venture. DuPont’s $7.4 billion takeover of the oil company Conoco in 1981 was the largest-ever transaction at the time. Recent years have seen DuPont shedding traditional businesses. Fibers went with its sale of Invista to Koch Industries in 2004. It spun off Chemours, a maker of titanium dioxide and refrigerants, in 2015. The merger and subsequent split with Dow Chemical took DuPont out of agricultural chemicals and seeds. Last year, DuPont sold Celanese its engineering polymer unit, which held the last vestige of its business in nylon 6,6.
1802: Founded
1902: Buys rival explosives company Laflin & Rand Powder
Counterparty: Laflin & Rand Powder
1910: Buys artificial leather company Fabrikoid
Counterparty: Fabrikoid
1913: Spins off gun powder makers Hercules Powder and Atlas Powder
Counterparty: Hercules Powder and Atlas Powder
1917–19: Buys 23% of automaker General Motors’ stock
Counterparty: General Motors
Transaction price: $49 million
1931: Forms Freon joint venture Kinetic Chemicals
Counterparty: General Motors
1931: Buys dye and organic chemical maker Newport Chemical
Counterparty: Newport Chemical
1965: Sells approximately 23% of auto company General Motors’ stock
Counterparty: General Motors
Transaction price: $1.2 billion
1981: Buys oil and gas firm Conoco
Counterparty: Conoco
Transaction price: $7.4 billion
1997: Buys 20% stake in seed maker Pioneer Hi-Bred International
Counterparty: Pioneer Hi-Bred International
Transaction price: $1.7 billion
1998: Spins off oil and gas unit Conoco
Counterparty: Conoco
Transaction price: $4 billion
1999: Buys remaining stake in seed maker Pioneer Hi-Bred International
Counterparty: Pioneer Hi-Bred International
Transaction price: $7.7 billion
2001: Sells pharmaceutical business
Counterparty: Bristol-Myers Squibb
Transaction price: $7.8 billion
2004: Sells nylon and spandex producer Invista
Counterparty: Koch Industries
Transaction price: $4.2 billion
2011: Buys enzyme and bioscience specialist Danisco
Counterparty: Danisco
Transaction price: $6.3 billion
2013: Sells industrial coatings business
Counterparty: Carlyle Group
Transaction price: $4.9 billion
2015: Spins off industrial chemical unit Chemours
Counterparty: Chemours
2017: Merges with Dow Chemical
Counterparty: Dow Chemical
Transaction price: $150 billion (market capitalization of the combined firm)
2019: Dow splits from DowDuPont
Counterparty: DowDuPont
2019: Agricultural chemical business Corteva Agriscience splits from DowDuPont
Counterparty: DowDuPont
2021: Sells nutrition and bioscience business
Counterparty: International Flavors & Fragrances
Transaction price: $26.2 billion
2022: Sells engineering polymer unit
Counterparty: Celanese
Transaction price: $11 billion.
Solvay
The Solvay synthetic soda ash process, developed in the 1860s, made Solvay a major chemical company by the turn of the century. It was family owned until its initial public offering in 1967. And the firm was pivotal to the founding of Allied Chemical, which is part of present-day Honeywell, and once owned a large stake in the British firm ICI. Solvay grew with Europe’s recovery after World War II and got into polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other polymers. In recent years it has been transforming into a specialty chemical maker. It divested PVC through transactions with Ineos. It purchased the French chemical giant Rhodia in 2011 and the US aerospace material specialist Cytec Industries in 2015. Solvay has retained the soda ash business all these years, though it has plans to split into two companies—one focused on commodities like soda ash and another on specialty chemicals.
1863: Founded
1920: Forms Allied Chemical & Dye in US
Counterparty: Solvay Process and Semet-Solvay
1949: Forms polyvinyl chloride joint venture Solvic
Counterparty: Imperial Chemical Industries
1967: Makes a public offering of shares
Counterparty: Solvay
1970: Forms peroxide joint venture Interox
Counterparty: Laporte
1974: Buys high-density polyethylene plant in Deer Park, Texas
Counterparty: Celanese
1980: Buys fine chemical and animal health product maker Philips-Duphar
Counterparty: Philips-Duphar
1992: Breaks up peroxide joint venture Interox
Counterparty: Laporte
1992: Buys soda ash mine
Counterparty: Tenneco
Transaction price: $500 million
1997: Sells animal health-care business
Counterparty: American Home Products
Transaction price: $450 million
2001: Swaps polypropylene business for BP’s engineering polymer unit and forms polyethylene joint ventures
Counterparty: BP
2002: Buys fluoropolymer business Ausimont
Counterparty: Montedison
Transaction price: $1.2 billion
2010: Sells pharmaceutical business
Counterparty: Abbott Laboratories
Transaction price: $6.2 billion
2011: Buys specialty chemical producer Rhodia
Counterparty: Rhodia
Transaction price: $4.8 billion
2013: Buys oil-field chemical supplier Chemlogics
Counterparty: Chemlogics
Transaction price: $1.3 billion
2015: Forms polyvinyl chloride joint venture Inovyn
Counterparty: Ineos
2015: Buys composite material and specialty chemical maker Cytec Industries
Counterparty: Cytec
Transaction price: $5.5 billion
2016: Sells 50% stake in polyvinyl chloride joint venture Inovyn
Counterparty: Ineos
Transaction price: $400 million
2020: Sells polyamide business
Counterparty: BASF
Transaction price: $1.5 billion.
BASF
When BASF became independent again in 1952 after 27 years as part of IG Farben, it was centered on a single production site, in Ludwigshafen, Germany. What is today the world’s largest chemical maker wasn’t even the largest chemical producer in Germany at the time. That was Bayer. Acquisitions helped BASF grow, diversify, and internationalize. The Dow Badische Chemical joint venture, formed in 1958, and the Wyandotte Chemicals acquisition in 1969 established a US infrastructure for BASF. For the past 25 years, the company has been honing its portfolio. It sold its pharmaceutical business to Abbott Laboratories in 2001. A series of transactions put its polyolefin and styrenic resin businesses in the hands of LyondellBasell Industries and Ineos, respectively. Major purchases during this period—including Engelhard in 2006 and Ciba in 2009—emphasized value-added chemistry rather than commodities.
1865: Founded
1873: Merges with dye suppliers Knosp and Siegle
Counterparty: Knosp and Siegle
1925: Forms German chemical cartel IG Farben
Counterparty: Bayer, Hoechst, and others
1952: Splits from IG Farben
Counterparty: IG Farben
1958: Forms joint venture Dow Badische Chemical
Counterparty: Dow
1968: Buys pharmaceutical maker Nordmark-Werke
Counterparty: Nordmark-Werke
Transaction price: $25 million
1969: Buys oil, gas, and potash maker Wintershall
Counterparty: Wintershall
Transaction price: $150 million
1969: Buys Wyandotte Chemicals
Counterparty: Wyandotte Chemicals
Transaction price: $95 million
1975: Buys pharmaceutical maker Knoll
Counterparty: Knoll
1978: Buys 50% stake in chemical complex Dow Badische in Freeport, Texas
Counterparty: Dow
1990: Buys polyurethane chemical maker Synthesewerk Schwarzheide
Counterparty: Synthesewerk Schwarzheide
2000: Buys crop protection chemical business American Cyanamid
Counterparty: American Home Products
Transaction price: $3.8 billion
2000: Forms polyolefin joint venture Basell
Counterparty: Shell
2001: Sells pharmaceutical business
Counterparty: Abbott Laboratories
Transaction price: $6.9 billion
2005: Sells Basell, a polyolefin joint venture with Shell
Counterparty: Access Industries Transaction price: $5.4 billion
2006: Buys catalyst maker Engelhard
Counterparty: Engelhard
Transaction price: $5.6 billion
2009: Buys specialty chemical maker Ciba
Counterparty: Cibal
Transaction price: $5.5 billion
2010: Buys personal care chemical specialist Cognis Holding
Counterparty: GS Capital Partners, Permira Funds, and SV Life Sciences
Transaction price: $3.8 billion
2011: Forms styrenic resin joint venture Styrolution
Counterparty: Ineos
2015: Buys composite material and
specialty chemical maker Cytec Industries
Counterparty: Cytec
Transaction price: $5.5 billion
2014: Sells stake in styrenic resin joint venture Styrolution
Counterparty: IIneos
Transaction price: $1.5 billion
2018: Buys business in glufosinate and other agricultural chemicals
Counterparty: Bayer
Transaction price: $9.0 billion
2019: Forms oil and gas venture Wintershall Dea
Counterparty: LetterOne.
Dow
Dow isn’t a serial dealmaker, but the transactions it has made have been transformative. Buying Union Carbide in 2001 strengthened Dow’s petrochemical and polyethylene operations. Rohm and Haas made it a huge player in specialty chemicals. And the merger with DuPont allowed Dow to divest its agricultural chemical unit to form Corteva Agriscience while gaining DuPont businesses that paired well with its own, such as DuPont’s packaging resin franchise. All the while, Dow cleaned up its portfolio with divestitures, such as the sale of its chlorine chemical business to Olin and its styrenic resin unit to a private equity firm to form what is now called Trinseo.
1897: Founded
1900: Merges with bromine maker Midland Chemical
Counterparty: Midland Chemical
1939: Buys chlorine maker Great Western Electro-Chemical
Counterparty: Great Western Electro-Chemical
Transaction price: $10 million
1943: Forms silicone joint venture Dow Corning
Counterparty: Corning
1989: Forms agricultural chemical joint venture DowElanco
Counterparty: Eli Lilly and Company
1989: Buys pharmaceutical maker Marion Laboratories to form Marion Merrell Dow
Counterparty: Marion Laboratories
Transaction price: $2.2 billion
1996: Sells pharmaceutical business Marion Merrell Dow
Counterparty: Hoechst
Transaction price: $7.1 billion
1997: Buys remaining 40% stake in agricultural chemical maker DowElanco
Counterparty: Eli Lilly and Company
Transaction price: $1.2 billion
1997: Buys specialty chemical maker Sentrachem
Counterparty: Sentrachem
Transaction price: $446 million
1998: Sells consumer product business DowBrands
Counterparty: S.C. Johnson & Son
Transaction price: $1.1 billion
1999: Buys nitroalkane maker Angus Chemical
Counterparty: TransCanada Pipelines
Transaction price: $350 million
2001: Buys petrochemical maker Union Carbide
Counterparty: Union Carbide
Transaction price: $11.6 billion
2001: Sells ethanolamine business
Counterparty: Ineos
2004: Forms two joint ventures: MEGlobal for ethylene glycol and Equipolymers for polyethylene terephthalate
Counterparty: Petrochemical Industries Company
2009: Buys specialty chemical maker Rohm and Haas
Counterparty: Rohm and Haas
Transaction price: $19 billion
2010: Sells styrenic resin and polycarbonate business
Counterparty: Bain Capital
Transaction price: $1.6 billion
2015: Sells nitroalkane maker Angus Chemical
Counterparty: Golden Gate Capital
Transaction price: $1.2 billion
2015: Sells chlorine and derivatives business
Counterparty: Olin
Transaction price: $5 billion
2016: Buys remaining 50% stake in silicone maker Dow Corning
Counterparty: Corning
Transaction price: $4.8 billion
2017: Merges with DuPont
Counterparty: DuPont
Transaction price: $150 billion (market capitalization of the combined firm)
2019: Splits from DowDuPont
Counterparty: DowDuPont.
Sabic
Sabic has an origin unlike that of any other major chemical company. In the 1970s, Saudi Arabia was a big oil exporter. But the country didn’t have a market for the ethane and methane that came out of the ground along with the oil. Saudi Basic Industries Corporation was established in 1976, in part to end the practice of flaring these gases by upgrading them into exportable chemicals. During its first decade, Sabic formed joint ventures with major foreign firms such as Exxon Chemical, Shell, and Mitsubishi Corporation to build massive petrochemical complexes in Saudi Arabia. In the aughts, the company grew internationally with the acquisition of European petrochemical businesses from DSM and Huntsman. The purchase of GE Plastics was a major leap internationally and added specialty materials to Sabic’s offerings.
1976: Founded
1981: Forms National Methanol (Ibn Sina)
Counterparty: Celanese and others
1983: Forms Saudi Methanol (Ar-Razi)
Counterparty: Mitsubishi Gas Chemical
1985: Forms Eastern Petrochemical (Sharq)
Counterparty: Mitsubishi Corporation
1985: Forms Al-Jubail Petrochemical (Kemya)
Counterparty: Exxon Chemical
1985: Forms Saudi Yanbu Petrochemical (Yanpet)
Counterparty: Mobil Oil
1985: Forms Saudi Petrochemical (Sadaf)
Counterparty: Shell
2002: Buys petrochemical business
Counterparty: DSM
Transaction price: $1.8 billion
2003: Forms joint venture to purchase process technology firm Scientific Design from Linde
Counterparty: Süd-Chemie
2007: Buys European petrochemical business
Counterparty: Huntsman
Transaction price: $700 million
2007: Buys GE Plastics
Counterparty: General Electric
Transaction price: $11.6 billion
2017: Buys remaining 50% stake in Saudi Petrochemical (Sadaf)
Counterparty: Shell
Transaction price: $820 million
2018: Buys 25% stake in specialty chemical maker Clariant
Counterparty: Clariant
Transaction price: $2.4 billion
2020: Sells 70% stake in itself
Counterparty: Saudi Aramco
Transaction price: $69 billion
2022: Buys 50% stake in process technology firm Scientific Design
Counterparty: Clariant
Transaction price: $130 million
2022: Forms ethylene and polyethylene firm Gulf Coast Growth Ventures
Counterparty: ExxonMobil.
Ineos
Founded in 1998, the British company is one of the youngest of the world’s major chemical makers. Ineos’s rapid growth is primarily the result of acquisitions of older operations cast off by more established firms. But Ineos doesn’t purchase chemical plants willy-nilly; its transactions over the years fit logical patterns. For example, through a series of deals, the company has reassembled the old BP Chemicals. The biggest of those deals was its $9 billion purchase of BP’s petrochemical and polyolefin business Innovene. It was followed by purchases of BP’s aromatics business and a 50% stake in the petrochemical complex Shanghai Secco Petrochemical in China, originally a BP joint venture with Sinopec. Ineos has also been a consolidator in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and styrenic resins. Major PVC acquisitions include EVC and Solvay’s PVC business. In styrenics, it has purchased assets from Lanxess and BASF.
1998: Founded via management buyout of ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol, and derivatives facility in Antwerp, Belgium
Transaction price: $140 million
2001: Buys fluorochemical, chlorochemical, and silicate businesses
Counterparty: ICI
Transaction price: $470 million
2001: Buys ethanolamine business
Counterparty: Dow
2001: Buys majority of polyvinyl chloride maker EVC
Counterparty: EVC
Transaction price: $70 million
2001: Buys Phenolchemie
Counterparty: Degussa
Transaction price: $378 million
2005: Buys remaining interest in polyvinyl chloride EVC
Counterparty: EVC
2005: Buys polystyrene business in US and Canada
Counterparty: BASF
2005: Buys petrochemical and polyolefin unit Innovene
Counterparty: BP
Transaction price: $ 9 billion
2007: Buys 50% stake in ethylene cracker Noretyl
Counterparty: Borealis
Transaction price: $380 million
2007: Buys 51% stake in acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene business
Counterparty: Lanxess
Transaction price: $48 million
2008: Buys polyvinyl chloride business and remaining 50% stake in ethylene cracker Noretyl
Counterparty: Norsk Hydro
Transaction price: $913 million
2008: Buys ethyl acetate and vinyl acetate business
Counterparty: BP
2010: Sells fluorine chemical unit
Counterparty: Mexichem
2011: Forms styrenic resin joint venture Styrolution
Counterparty: BASF
2014: Buys remaining 50% stake in the styrenic resin joint venture Styrolution
Counterparty: BASF
Transaction price: $1.5 billion
2015: Forms polyvinyl chloride joint venture Inovyn
Counterparty: Solvay
2016: Buys remaining 50% stake in polyvinyl chloride joint venture Inovyn
Counterparty: Solvay
Transaction price: $400 million
2019: Buys composite resin business
Counterparty: Ashland
Transaction price: $1.1 billion
2021: Buys aromatics business
Counterparty: BP
Transaction price: $5 billion
2022: Buys 50% stake in Shanghai Secco Petrochemical
Counterparty: Sinopec.
A prominent part of C&EN’s business coverage over the years has been stories about corporate mergers and acquisitions, or M&A. They are some of the most exciting stories that we write. We wake up to the news that a chemical company we have long known will be acquired and absorbed into another, usually bigger, firm. Transaction amounts are eye popping, in the tens of billions of dollars for big deals nowadays. And executives try to dazzle investors with explanations of why the two businesses will be stronger in combination than they are as separate entities.
Familiar names like Ciba, GE Plastics, Rohm and Haas, and Union Carbide disappeared from the scene through single large deals. Other companies, such as Hoechst and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), were whittled away through many transactions.
Other times, new companies are created when parts of large chemical makers are spun off or sold to investors. Chemours, Corteva Agriscience, and Trinseo, for example, are now prominent names in the chemical industry thanks to this process.
As part of C&EN’s centennial celebration, we are highlighting the transformative nature of M&A with the following timeline infographics. They chronicle the dealmaking histories of six chemical companies that, through mergers, acquisitions, sales, and spin-offs, did much to reshape the structure of the industry.
Four of them are the traditional companies DuPont, Solvay, BASF, and Dow. All four originated before C&EN was born. All of them have humble beginnings in a single product line: gunpowder for DuPont, soda ash for Solvay, dyes for BASF, and bromine for Dow. All found themselves diversifying in the 20th century, particularly after World War II. And all once had pharmaceutical businesses.
We also selected two relatively new firms: Sabic and Ineos. C&EN covered the birth of both companies. Sabic grew as a development project of the government of Saudi Arabia. Ineos’s beginning was entrepreneurial, and it grew almost entirely by acquiring businesses from more traditional chemical companies.
All six firms have been significantly remodeled over the years, but all are survivors in a consolidating industry. Of course, the timelines take us only to the present. We could wake up one day to find that one of these companies is the latest to be consumed in a merger.
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