Clariant: two activist shareholders oppose Huntsman deal.

(CercleFinance.com) - (CercleFinance.
com) -The Clariant share is up 3% on the Zurich Stock Exchange this morning.

Recently two US activist funds, North 40 and Corvex Management, have taken stakes in the group's capital and oppose the merger between the Swiss specialist chemist and the US group Huntsman Corp. Having become shareholders, these funds believe that the “deal” significantly undervalues the Clariant share, and would be a strategic error, and that there is a better way to enhance the group's value.

As a sign of their involvement, North 40 and Corvex Management acquired over 7% of the capital of Clariant through investment vehicle White Tale Holdings. This represents a cash outlay of over 500 million dollars and makes White Tale the largest shareholder in the Swiss group.

However, the activist shareholders contest this: according to them, the deal with Huntsman "makes no sense from a strategic viewpoint" and, worse, would constitute a complete reversal of Clariant's strategy, which historically has been to "become a 'pure player' of specialty chemicals ". In short, these shareholders want Clariant to abandon its proposed merger with Huntsman and focus on other alternatives to create value; for example, by approaching other (unnamed) sector players.



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