ICI hits snags in titanium dioxide negotiations with Huntsman
15 Jan 2000
The trouble-hit sale of ICI's titanium dioxide business has hit yet another delay, with the latest company interested in the business, Huntsman, calling a halt to negotiations. ICI is believed to have wanted to sell the businesses by Easter, but the Huntsman executives flew back to their Salt Lake City headquarters without signing the deal.
The deal is worth some $2.8billion, and leaves ICI with a minority stake in the business. The hitch is believed to be a delay rather than a collapse, but it marks another problem for ICI, which is still attempting to reduce the debt it incurred two years ago when it bought Unilever's speciality chemicals divisions.
Other ICI businesses still on the block include the petrochemical and chlor-alkali complexes at Teesside and Runcorn and businesses in India and Pakistan. The company had agreed to sell most of these assets to DuPont, but the deal collapsed after the US Federal Trade Comission imposed conditions on the sale to which neither company could agree. BP Amoco Chemicals has expressed an interest in expanding its stake in the Teesside cracker, but terms have so far not been agreed.
