Valspar and Sherwin-Williams postpone their deal
The pending Valspar/Sherwin-Williams deal might take a little longer to complete than previously expected.
The two companies have extended the termination date of the definitive agreement from March 21, 2017 to June 21, 2017.
The deal has Sherwin-Williams set to acquire Valspar for $113 per share in an all-cash transaction.
However, Sherwin-Williams reported in its 2016 year-end earnings release that it was expecting a divestiture well below the threshold of $650 million of Valspar 2015 revenues, which would be required to gain approval from the Federal Trade Commission to move forward with the deal. At that time, Sherwin-Williams expected the divestiture and the Valspar transaction to be closed by the end of April 2017.
Sherwin-Williams is now essentially moving the goalposts for the completion of the divestiture, and it expects to have a more concrete timeline by its first quarter earnings conference call on April 20, 2017.
"We continue to move forward on the divestiture of a single business that we believe will allow us to gain approval from the FTC, and we are in discussions with a number of prospective buyers," said chairman, president and CEO Joh Morikis. "We remain confident in our ability to complete the divestiture at a fair price, and we look forward to unlocking the value of the combined business when the Valspar acquisition closes."
