BOSTON (AP) — Cabot Corp. closed a $450 million sale of its tantalum business to an Australian miner, the specialty chemicals company said Monday.
Boston's Cabot said the sale will help stabilize its profits and will allow it to focus on existing and new growth initiatives. Tantalum is a high performance metal used in electronics products, mostly capacitors.
Cabot received an initial cash payment of $175 million Global Advanced Materials. The company also will receive at least another $275 million over the next two years, including the remaining $215 million purchase price, at least $11 million of payments based on future performance and about $50 million for the sale of excess inventory.
The deal is expected to result in a pre-tax gain of about $330 million, with about $300 million expected to be recorded during the second quarter of fiscal 2012 and the rest over the next two years.
Cabot expects to receive after-tax proceeds of about $430 million over the two year period. The deal includes facilities in Pennsylvania and Japan, but Cabot said it will keep its cesium and tantalum mining operation in the Canadian province of Manitoba.