The newly formed DowDuPont isn’t going to look exactly like the organically planned.
Since the merger between two of the world’s biggest chemical companies was announced in Dec. 2015, the plan has been to break up the new company into three spinoffs: material sciences, agriculture and specialty chemicals.
But as the deal has neared the finish line in the last few months, a growing chorus of activist investors have been pressuring the companies to revise certain aspects of the spinoffs. Now, those investors have scored a victory.
According to a report in Reuters, DowDuPont will now move several businesses from the material sciences division to the specialty-chemicals company that together acount for $8 billion in sales. The businesses included in the move include water purification and automotive systems.
Dow Corning, a silicone technology company that was fully acquired by Dow last year, will also be broken up into and separated between the materials and specialty chemicals divisions.
Plans for the $14 billion agriculture company have not been altered.
The decision was made to make the changes after a consulting firm finished a four-month review of the deal, which included talks with 25 of the company’s biggest shareholders.
Analysts say that DowDuPont is also looking to avoid an activist fight.
The investors include Nelson Peltz, a billionaire behind Trian Fund Managment who famously clashed with DuPont in 2015 over board seats.
Another one of the company’s biggest stakeholders, Third Point, said that these kinds of portfolio tweaks could unlock $20 billion in additional value from the deal.