The good news for workers at these three plants is that they will be offered jobs elsewhere within Dow Chemical. Approximately 100 people work at the three plants.

Dow Chemical says they are making the change to focus more on specialty chemicals rather than basic chemicals. This change in focus started when they purchased Rohm & Haas a few months ago in a transaction that cost $16 billion.

Said Andrew N. Liveris, the CEO of Dow Chemical: “Consistent with Dow’s practice of active portfolio management, we continue to take quick and aggressive action to right-size our manufacturing footprint, particularly in our basics portfolio. These actions are also aligned with our strategic transformation, which focuses on preferentially investing for growth in our performance and advanced materials portfolios. In addition, we are making excellent progress on achieving $1.3 billion in cost synergies from the acquisition, and today’s steps demonstrate our speed and determination to deliver these savings.”

On Wednesday, Dow Chemical’s fell about one percent.

Dow Chemical (Image: Flickr)

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Three Dow Chemical Plants to Close

Rohm & Haas shareholders will receive $78 per share plus a small ticking fee agreed upon in their original deal. Last summer Dow had agreed to buy Rohm but then balked at closing the takeover after their plastics joint venture ($17.4 billion) fell apart. In January, Rohm sued Dow for not proceeding.

Logo: Courtesy of Dow

Under the terms of the transaction, the two biggest shareholders (Haas Family Trusts and Paulson & Co.) will take $2.5 billion of the money owed to them in preferred equity. Additionally, another $500 million will be paid to Haas trusts.

Source: Wire Reports

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Dow Chemical Agrees to Buy Rohm & Haas