AkzoNobel Has a Business to Sell Before the Merger Closes
Brussels cleared the $17 billion coatings merger of equals on November 6, on a condition that is a sale: AkzoNobel's entire European vehicle refinish business, to a buyer the Commission has to approve before the two companies are allowed to combine. The UK asked for the same thing on Tuesday. Also on the file since the last radar: Mercer in chapter 11 with 2,095,000 tonnes of pulp and nothing idled, a fire agent that quietly lost the data storage room, a zero percent margin that does not retire an order, and one Chinese producer holding 18.71 percent.
The European Commission cleared the AkzoNobel and Axalta merger on November 6, the provisional deadline this desk has had in the calendar since October.
It cleared on a condition, and the condition is a sale.
"What happens to a coatings business that has to find its own buyer before its parent is allowed to merge?"
Everything below is new since Tuesday's radar, with two exceptions flagged where they appear: a chapter 11 and an EPA rule that landed last week and no radar has carried.
Brussels Cleared It, Then Added a Buyer
AkzoNobel filed the news to the SEC as a Form 425 the same day. Case M.12269.
The remedy, in the companies' own words, is "a targeted remedy involving the divestment of AkzoNobel's European vehicle refinish business," and the commitments remove "the horizontal overlap between the companies' activities in the European Economic Area, UK and Switzerland."
The combined business runs on roughly $17 billion of revenue, and completion is expected in early 2027 (chart below).
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