Latham & Watkins represents The Carlyle Group in the transaction with a corporate deal team led by London partner Michael Bond and Washington, DC partner David Dantzic. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions including the relevant regulatory approvals and consultation with the relevant employee representative bodies, and is due to complete by the end of the year. Advice was provided on finance matters by capital markets partners Patrick Shannon and Jason Licht, and leveraged finance partners Jeffrey Chenard and Manu Gayatrinath, in Washington, DC.

Shareholder approval

AkzoNobel obtained shareholder approval for the separation at an Extraordinary General Meeting held last November. The deal is the outcome of a thorough dual-track process during which the Boards of AkzoNobel carefully considered both a legal demerger and a private sale. Thierry Vanlancker, CEO AkzoNobel, said: 'Today is a key milestone in creating two focused, high performing businesses, to generate value for all stakeholders. We delivered on our commitment to separate the Specialty Chemicals business and did so ahead of schedule.' 

Equity

Equity for this investment will come from Carlyle Partners VII, Carlyle Europe Partners IV, Carlyle’s longstanding investment partner GIC (which manages Singapore’s foreign reserves) and co-investors. Lazard, JPMorgan Chase and HSBC advised Akzo Nobel on the sale.