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Elementis in war of words with investor

Speciality chemicals company Elementis has come under pressure after an investor, Franklin Mutual Advisers, published an open letter to board chairman John O’Higgins, calling for it to put itself up for sale before its Q3 results on 31 October. Elementis has responded by saying it did not think this to be in shareholders’ best interests.

Elementis rejected Innospec offer

Following press speculation, it has been confirmed that Innospec made an offer to acquire Elementis for £1.60/share on 31 March and that this was rejected on 9 April. Innospec is no longer pursuing the matter.

Elementis said that its board, together with its management and advisers, assessed the offer against its own valuation framework concluded that it “fell meaningfully short of the value creation potential” of the current strategy, particularly in view of “the strong momentum in the business” after a strong start to the year. They therefore unanimously rejected it.

Elementis, Grace reject takeover approaches

Two players in speciality chemicals, Elementis in the UK and W.R. Grace in the US, have both been approached with conditional takeover offers and have both rejected them in recent weeks.

Elementis announced on 12 November that it had received a preliminary conditional proposal from Minerals Technologies in relation to a possible cash offer at £1.07/share. Based on consultation with its financial adviser, it concluded that this “significantly undervalued Elementis and its future prospects” and the board unanimously rejected it.

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