Westlake Chemical Corp. has engaged Sard Verbinnen & Co. and Mackenzie Partners to drum up support for its $20-per-share bid for Axiall Corp.
Axiall, which is working with Joele Frank on the PR front, has rejected the overture.
Westlake, a maker of petrochemicals and building produts, said the deal is worth $2.9B, including assumption of about $1.5B in Axiall debt. The company wants to diversify its operations with Axiall's building materials production. Westlake said Axiall's board shot down the deal and has refused to engage in talks about the deal.
“We believe that Westlake’s proposal is an opportunistic attempt to take advantage of challenging public equity market conditions and significantly undervalues Axiall’s assets and its long-term prospects,” Timothy Mann, president and CEO, said in a statement.
Mann added that the company is committed to cutting $100M in costs by the end of 2016 and is looking at a possible sale of its building products business.
Edelman handles Viking Holdings, the river and ocean luxury cruise line that plans to raise $1B via an IPO priced in the $21 to $25 per share range.
Teneo is handling the initial public offering of CVC Capital Partners, one of Europe’s largest private equity firms with nearly $200B in assets under management.
Brunswick Group represents Endeavor Group Holdings as it agrees to go private via its acquisition by Silver Lake technology investment firm, which is handled by Edelman Smithfield.
Tod Donhauser, a nine-year veteran of Edelman, has joined H/Advisors Abernathy as managing director and head of its San Francisco office.
Intelligent Group Ltd, a Hong Kong-based financial PR firm, has priced its initial public offering of 1.9M shares at $4, which is the low end of the $4 to $5 range.
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