With the multibillion-dollar sale of the Huntsman family's chemical empire — which traces its beginnings to a McDonald's clamshell container for Big Mac hamburgers — Utah industrialist and philanthropist Jon Huntsman Sr. says he can now focus his attention on the fight against cancer.
"My dreams in life have never been to try and build a major international chemical business," Huntsman told the Deseret Morning News from London. "My hopes and desires in life have been to eliminate human suffering, mostly through cancer, and to try to bring peace and a pain-free existence to people who suffer."
The Huntsman Corp. has been sold to a European company in a $9.6 billion deal, the Salt Lake City-based company announced Tuesday. Access Industries, through its European subsidiary Basell Holdings, based in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands, will pay $25.25 per share in cash or roughly $5.88 billion and will assume approximately $3.7 billion in debt. As of March 31, Huntsman Corp. reported that amount of total debt, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Huntsman, 70, founder and chairman of Huntsman Corp., said the sale will bring in roughly $1.5 billion cash for his family.
The windfall means Huntsman can now concentrate his efforts on the Huntsman Foundation, a charitable fund focused on fighting cancer.
He said that on Monday he transferred $600 million worth of stock to the foundation. The stock is expected to be converted to cash by the end of this year. The difference — $900 million — also will be put in the foundation over the coming years.
Huntsman said he already has given a lot of his fortune away — about $525 million to charitable causes.
"We're just truly blessed now that we have a new, fresh start," Huntsman said. "I have substantial other plans for new businesses and new opportunities for investment. In the meantime, I will always stay close in one way or another to the chemical business. It's like one of my children. It's been with me for the last 37 years. My heart will always be there with the people, customers and suppliers."
The transaction, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year, was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both Huntsman and Basell Holdings but is subject to regulatory approval in the United States and in Europe, as well as the approval of Huntsman shareholders.
Peter Huntsman, president and chief executive officer of Huntsman Corp., will continue to serve in both capacities at the company's administrative headquarters in Houston.
The roughly 50 employees at Huntsman Corp.'s world headquarters in the Salt Lake office, as well as the 1,000 employees in the Houston area, will be unaffected by the acquisition at least for the next year, Peter Huntsman said. Huntsman Sr. said no decisions have been made as to what position he may hold in the new company.
The Huntsman Corp. name is expected to continue, Peter Huntsman said. Once the transaction is final, Huntsman Corp. will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Basell Holdings.
"We now become part of a $26 billion chemical company with 25,000 employees around the world," Peter Huntsman said. "How access to the parent group is to be structured and locations for headquarters is yet to be seen."
On Tuesday, shares of Huntsman on the New York Stock Exchange closed up $5.31 a share at $24.21, a 28.1 percent increase. In the past year, Huntsman Corp. stock had traded between $15.62 to $21.92.
Huntsman Corp. became a publicly traded company in February 2005, raising $1.45 billion in an initial public offering. The acquisition will again take Huntsman to a privately held company.
"This transaction enhances our position as a global industrial group with long-term strategic assets in the chemicals industry," Len Blavatnik, chairman and founder of Access Industries, said in a prepared statement. "Basell's management team has done an excellent job in growing and enhancing the company over the last two years, putting it in a position to make this acquisition. We look forward to further growth and profitability in this industry."
Access Industries, based in New York, acquired Basell in 2005 to become the world's biggest producer of polypropylene plastic.
Huntsman products include a broad range of chemicals and are marketed in more than 100 countries to consumer and industrial customers. Huntsman's products can be found in adhesives, aerospace components, appliances, automotive parts, construction products, electronics, footwear, furniture and bedding, medical devices, packaging, paints and coatings, power generation, refining, synthetic fiber, textile chemicals and dye industries.
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. had nothing to say Tuesday about the sale of his family's company.
"Until the transaction is final, the governor doesn't have any comment," his spokeswoman, Lisa Roskelley, said. "Obviously, he doesn't have any financial interest or holdings in the company."
Huntsman Jr. stepped down from the company before entering the governor's race in 2003. He said he made between $15 million and $25 million when he sold his shares in Huntsman Corp. after the firm went public.
The governor's father first approached McDonald's with his clamshell container in 1974 but was turned away.
"I spent two days waiting for them to see me, and they never would see me," Jon Huntsman Sr. said. "So I bought a one-way ticket to Miami and a friend introduced me to the head of Burger King and they bought the first clamshell.... Within weeks, McDonald's came to my office and asked if I could produce a similar product for them. There's nothing like a little competition to get somebody's interest."
Huntsman said the payoff from the acquisition will mainly be used to fund research to fight cancer. The senior Huntsman's mother died of breast cancer. His stepmother died of ovarian cancer and his father died of prostate cancer. Huntsman himself has survived three types of cancer.
In addition to fighting cancer, Huntsman said the foundation will also fund efforts at fighting homelessness, helping abused woman and children and rewarding excellence in education.
At least 80 percent of the Huntsman Foundation's charitable giving in the future will be to causes within the state of Utah, Huntsman said.
E-mail: danderton@desnews.com