Huntsman names pigments & additives spin-off “Venator Materials Corporation
Huntsman has announced that the name of its planned spin-off will be Venator Materials Corporation. Venator is the Latin word for hunter and is intended, in part, to acknowledge the Huntsman legacy.
Venator shares are expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker VNTR after the distribution to Huntsman's shareholders, which remains targeted for the second quarter of 2017.
Huntsman retains Textile Effects business
Huntsman Corporation also announced that it has decided to retain the textile effects business and exclude it from its planned pigments and additives spin-off. Strong pricing recovery for titanium dioxide and the identification of business improvement opportunities representing more than EUR69.7 million in annual EBITDA are expected to significantly enhance the financial strength of Venator's business. The EUR69.7 million in business improvements are incremental to current earnings and are expected to be completed by the end of 2018.
Peter R. Huntsman, Huntsman Corporation President and CEO, commented:
“We are making significant progress toward the spin-off and are pleased with the Pigments and Additives business recovery. We expect Venator will be a premier pigments company unencumbered by excessive debt or other unrelated liabilities. Improved titanium dioxide pricing combined with the identification of business improvement opportunities that are incremental to current earnings are expected to more than offset the free cash flow that Venator would have received from the Textile Effects business.”
“In addition to the progress we are making on the spin of our Pigments and Additives business, we continue to improve our free cash flow generation and grow our downstream differentiated businesses. During 2016, we also repaid approximately EUR512 million of debt and significantly strengthened our balance sheet.”
