Huntsman launches IPO
The specialty chemical company offers 22.7 million shares of Venator.
Huntsman said Monday that it launched the initial public offering to spin off Venator Materials as a new company.
As part of the nearly $500 million IPO, Huntsman, a specialty chemical company, is offering 22.7 million shares of Venator at $20 to $22 per share. The new pigments and additives company will soon trade under the “VNTR” stock ticker on the New York Stock Exchange.
Venator is a Latin word for “hunter” — a play off of the Huntsman family name. Huntsman said the new company would focus largely on the titanium dioxide chemical, called TiO2, which is used as a pigment for everything from food coloring and paints to coatings and sunscreen. The business is more cyclical than Huntsman’s other divisions that make specialty chemicals and prone to more financial peaks and valleys.
The IPO spinoff is occurring before Huntsman’s pending merger with Swiss-based Clariant to create the $14 billion company called Huntsman Clariant. The formal headquarters for Huntsman Clariant would be in Clariant’s hometown of Pratteln, Switzerland, in part for tax purposes, while The Woodlands would become the operational headquarters for the combined company.
The deal is expected to close by year-end.
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