AkzoNobel Shareholders Support Separation of Specialty Chemicals Business

Akzonobel shareholders Thursday at the company’s Extraordinary General Meeting approved the separation of the Specialty Chemicals business as part of a strategy to create two focused, high performing businesses: Paints and Coatings and Specialty Chemicals.

“Today’s approval ensures we maintain momentum in the process to separate our Specialty Chemicals business,” said Supervisory Board Chairman Antony Burgmans. “Our new appointments bring a wealth of new insight and experience to our Boards, supporting AkzoNobel to deliver sustainable growth and value creation.”

New CFO Maarten de Vries’s appointment to the Board of Management – effective Jan. 1, 2018 – was also approved, along with the addition of Sue Clark, Patrick Thomas, and Michiel Jaski to the AkzoNobel Supervisory Board. 

Shareholder approval enables AkzoNobel to separate its Specialty Chemicals business through a private sale or legal demerger. The dual-track process ensures the appropriate flexibility necessary to obtain an optimal result for shareholders and other stakeholders as well as certainty of execution.

As previously announced, AkzoNobel intends to return the vast majority of the net proceeds from the separation of Specialty Chemicals to its shareholders – starting with advance proceeds of  €1 billion through a special cash dividend. The special dividend will be paid on Dec. 7, 2017.