Sherwin-Williams to Buy Valspar for $8.9 Billion -- 3rd Update

By Dana Mattioli, Dana Cimilluca and Liz Hoffman 

Sherwin-Williams Co. has agreed to buy Valspar Corp., a painting and coatings company, for about $8.9 billion.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Sunday that the companies were close to a deal.

The offer is worth $113 a share, a 35% premium to Friday's close.

The acquisition would give Sherwin more bulk in its battles with paint rivals PPG Industries Inc. and Amsterdam-based AkzoNobel NV. Sherwin has focused mainly on the U.S. and Latin America, while PPG has pursued more of a global strategy with larger operations in Europe and Asia.

Sherwin has long relied heavily on its own stores for paint sales, but last year Sherwin began selling a new HGTV brand of paint at Lowe's stores, taking some space from rivals like Valspar.

The purchase also would give Sherwin another strong brand to sell through big-box retailers like Home Depot Inc., Lowe's Cos. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which have been taking market share away from independent paint stores.

The global coatings market--including paint and coatings used for cars, ships and myriad other products--produces about $130 billion of sales a year, according to PPG.

Valspar's market value is $6.6 billion. Sherwin-Williams, based in Cleveland, Ohio, has a much larger market value of $26.8 billion. In 2015, the company had $11.3 billion in sales and a $1.1 billion profit.

The companies said that they expect minimal pushback from antitrust authorities, but that should regulators require Sherwin-Williams to sell businesses that contributed more than $650 million to Valspar's 2015 revenue, the deal price would be reduced by $8 a share. And Sherwin-Williams can walk away with regulators require divestitures of more than $1.5 billion in revenue.

It has been a busy stretch for deals in the chemicals space, which coatings companies would fall under. Last year, chemicals giants Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co. signed a deal worth a combined $120 billion.

Write to Dana Mattioli at [e-mail], Dana Cimilluca at [e-mail] and Liz Hoffman at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 20, 2016 13:51 ET (17:51 GMT)

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