CHICAGO -- Chemical manufacturing giant Rohm and Haas is buying Morton International Inc., best known for its salt, for $4.6 billion in cash and stock in a deal creating a world leader in specialty chemicals.
The transaction announced Monday creates a global specialty chemicals company with combined annual revenues of $6.5 billion.Morton's operation in Tooele County extracts 500,000 tons of salt annually from the Great Salt Lake.
The Morton acquisition comes just more than a month after Rohm and Haas agreed to acquire LeaRonal, a maker of plastic additives and electronic and agricultural chemicals, for $460 million.
Philadelphia-based Rohm and Hass will also assume $268 million of Morton's debt as part of the latest deal.
Rohm and Haas, with $4 billion in annual sales, makes chemicals found in such products as decorative and industrial paints, semiconductors and shampoos.
Chicago-based Morton, whose products also include adhesives, dyes and electronic materials, had total annual sales of $2.5 billion for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 1998.
"The marriage of Morton's highly respected applications expertise with our technology strengths will provide customers unsurpassed value," said J. Lawrence Wilson, chairman and chief executive of Rohm and Haas.
S. Jay Stewart, Morton's chairman and chief executive, said the deal gives Morton greater resources.
Under terms of the agreement, Rohm and Haas will begin a cash tender offer for up to 67 percent of Morton's common stock at $37.12 a share. Based on Morton's closing price of $25.87 on Friday, this represents a premium of 43 percent, the companies said.
Rohm and Haas will acquire the remaining Morton shares in a "second-step merger" in which each share of Morton will be exchanged for Rohm and Haas shares valued at $37.12.
Wilson will remain chairman and chief executive officer of Rohm and Haas and Stewart will become a vice chairman of Rohm and Haas and will join the board of directors. Two members of Morton's board will join Stewart on the Rohm and Haas board.