Salt Lake-based Huntsman Corp., the fifth-biggest U.S. chemicalmaker, may pay a dividend for the first time in early 2007 and shed some North American manufacturing assets as part of a plan to focus on higher-value products.
An announcement on the sale of polymer and base-chemical businesses might be "in the next few weeks," Peter R. Huntsman, chief executive officer of Huntsman, said Friday in a statement. The company has "received greater-than-anticipated interest from potential buyers," he said.
Huntsman completed the sale of its U.K.-based European commodity-chemicals business to Saudi Basic Industries Corp. for $685 million. Sabic also assumes $126 million in pension liabilities, Huntsman said. Asset sales have helped reduce net debt by $2.6 billion in two years while increasing the portion of sales derived from specialty products, the company said.
"We now derive over 80 percent of our sales from our differentiated chemical products, which are significantly less cyclical, less energy-dependent and higher margin businesses than commodity chemicals," CEO Huntsman said in the statement. "We anticipate declaring the company's first quarterly dividend on common shares in early 2007."
The dividend amount and timing will be set by Huntsman's board, which meets in early February, spokesman Russ Stolle said.
The sale to Riyadh-based Sabic, the world's largest chemicals maker by market value, was $15 million less than the $700 million Huntsman announced Sept. 28. The difference mostly reflects unused funds that Huntsman planned to spend on a U.K. polyethylene plant acquired by Sabic, Stolle said.
The transaction excludes Huntsman's Teeside-based pigments division and the Wilton-based aniline and nitrobenzene units.
Shares of Huntsman rose 32 cents, or 1.7 percent, to close at $18.97 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. They have gained 9.7 percent this year.
Dow Chemical Co. is the largest U.S. chemical maker by 2005 revenue, followed by Exxon Mobil Corp., DuPont Co. and Lyondell Chemical Co.