Dow Inks to Close Rohm and Haas Acquisition     

On March 9th, The Dow Chemical Company announced that it has reached agreements with Rohm and Haas and certain of its shareholders that permit Dow to close the acquisition on substantially altered financial terms by April 1st, 2009.
   The acquisition creates the world's leading specialty chemicals and advanced materials company, combining the two organizations' best-in-class technologies, broad geographic reach and strong industry channels to create an outstanding business portfolio with significant long-term growth opportunities.
   Dow has put into place an even more aggressive plan to realize combined synergies of US$1.3 billion, up from US$910 million, as originally outlined.
   As part of the company's plans to improve its financial position, Dow has commenced an aggressive asset divestment program involving a number of Dow and Rohm and Haas business units expected to yield approximately US$4 billion including Dow's 45% stake in Total Raffinaderij Nederland NV (TRN), the Dutch petroleum refining partnership with Total Group; some of Dow's equity stakes in its olefins and derivatives business in southeastern Asia; Morton Salt, a division of Rohm and Haas.
   Divestments from this program, in addition to the increased equity financing will address essentially the cash shortfall created by the failure of the K-Dow transaction to close as scheduled.