Topic: How To Invest

Q: Pat: What do you think of the new DowDuPont stock formed from Dow and DuPont, and its spinoff prospects? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

A: Less than two years after agreeing to merge, Dow Chemical and DuPont have received all regulatory approvals, with the combined company now trading on the New York exchange as DowDuPont, $68.50, symbol DWDP (Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $155.2 billion; www.dow-dupont.com). To satisfy regulators concerned about the possibility of anti-competitive behaviour after the merger, Dow and DuPont each had to sell certain assets. DuPont was forced to divest itself of its market-leading Finesse herbicide and Rynaxpyr insecticide products; it sold them to a buyer approved by the U.S. Department of Justice. For its part, Dow had to divest itself of its U.S. acid copolymers and ionomers business. The European Commission, which has more stringent anti-trust laws than the U.S., approved the merger based on the divestitures outlined by U.S. regulators. DuPont also had to sell off its assets focused on research into new crop protection chemicals and their development. The required asset sales followed a number of voluntary sales already completed before…