Clariant initiates meeting with White Tale
Representatives of the specialty chemicals company Clariant met with White Tale in Zurich, Switzerland. The meeting was initiated in order to identify possible ways to work together following the termination of the merger agreement between Clariant and Huntsman.
In the break up of the merger, the investor had played an important role. In the discussions, White Tale did not present its own strategy or bespoke plans as to how they would further develop Clariant and create long-term sustainable value for all shareholders.
Preventing break-up
White Tale repeated its request to hire yet another investment bank to conduct a strategic review process. Specifically, the Board of Directors perceives this process to be merely focused on finding bidders for various businesses with the consequence of break-up the company and selling the assets. This, however, does not align with the entrepreneurial vision of Clariant and its management to further develop the company’s leading position in the specialty chemicals industry. This request therefore was unanimously rejected.
Open for further talks
Clariant offers White Tale the option to initiate a registration process to propose one additional member into the Board of Clariant at the upcoming AGM in March 2018. In addition, the Board has again offered White Tale the opportunity to sign a non-disclosure agreement which would enable White Tale to gain more insight into the current strategy of the Group. Clariant remains open for further talks with White Tale, the company says.
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