MIDLAND, Mich. –Dow Chemical and DuPont, two chemical giants with strong ties to West Virginia, announced plans to merge Friday.
The new company, known as DowDupont, will be worth an estimated $130 billion.
Andrew N. Liveris will become executive chairman and Edward D. Breen will be named CEO. The new board of directors will have 16 members, split equally between current directors from Dow and DuPont. Breen and Liveris will serve on the board along with two co-lead directors.
The merged company will have a dual headquarters in Midland, Mich., where Dow is presently headquartered and Wilmington, Del., home base of DuPont.
Plans call for the conglomerate to be operated as three individual and publicly traded companies. Those will be split into agriculture products, material science, and specialty chemical products.
The merger is pending the approval of shareholders and federal regulators. It’s expected if those approvals are made the deal will be closed within a year. Dow was formed in 1897 and DuPont was formed in 1802. The merger would form the world’s second largest chemical company.
Both Dow and Dupont have operations in West Virginia. Dow runs the old Union Carbide site in South Charleston along with a presence in the Technology Park there. Dow also operates the Bayer Crop Sciences Institute’s W.Va.site after a separate acquisition in the last year.
DuPont previously oversaw a major operation in Belle, W.Va., most of which is now Chemours. The company also had other West Virginia plants over the years. It’s unclear how the merger will impact those in-state operations.
DuPont shareholders will receive 1.282 shares of the new company stock in exchange for one share of DowDuPont stock. Dow shareholders would receive a one-for-one swap of Dow shares for each share of the new company’s stock. Officials said the dividend policy will remain the same as the current companies.