US specialty chemicals maker Innospec raises bid for TPC Group to $744 mn
15 Nov 2012
US specialty chemicals maker Innospec Inc and private equity firm Blackstone Group today raised their bid for TPC Group Inc to $744 million from $721 million in order to fend off an agreed rival takeover offer from private equity firms First Reserve Corp and SK Capital Partners.
The move comes a week after Houston-based TPC had ended talks with Innospec and Blackstone and agreed to sell itself to for a revised $45-a-share offer from First Reserve and SK Capital, who had earlier offered to pay $40-a share.
TPC said that Innospec and Blackstone has now offered $47.50 per share in cash, and it will restart negotiations with Innospec and Blackstone and allow it to resume due diligence.
Founded in 1944, TPC, formerly known as Texas Petrochemicals, is a global leader providing a diverse range of products to global chemical and petroleum-based companies.
It is North America's largest producer of finished butadiene and the largest producer of butene-1. The company, set up by the US government to make synthetic rubber during WWII, is the second largest active merchant producer of high purity isobutylene in North America.
The company, which competes with LyondellBasell Industries, Royal Dutch Shell, and Exxon Mobil, went into bankruptcy in 2003, emerging from it a year later.