DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly known as DuPont, is an American company formed by the merger of Dow Chemical and E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company on August 31, 2017, and the subsequent spinoffs of Dow Inc. and Corteva. Prior to the spinoffs it was the world’s largest chemical company in terms of sales. The merger has been reported to be worth an estimated $130 billion. With 2018 total revenue of $86 billion, DowDuPont ranked No. 35 on the 2019 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States public corporations. DuPont is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, in the state where it is incorporated since the founding of the old DuPont in 1802.
Within 18 months of the merger the DowDupont was split into three publicly traded companies with focuses on agriculture (Corteva), materials science (Dow Inc.), and specialty products (DuPont).
History
On December 11, 2015, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, commonly known as “DuPont”, announced a merger with Dow Chemical Company, in an all-stock transaction. The combined company, DowDuPont, had an estimated value of $130 billion, being equally held by both companies’ shareholders, while also maintaining its two headquarters. The merger of the two largest U.S. chemical companies closed on August 31, 2017.
Both companies’ boards of directors decided that following the merger, DowDuPont would pursue a separation into three independent, publicly traded companies: an agriculture, a materials science, and a specialty products company.
- The agriculture business—Corteva Agriscience— unites Dow and DuPont’s seed and crop protection unit, with an approximate revenue of $16 billion.
- The materials science segment—called Dow—consists of DuPont’s Performance Materials unit, together with Dow’s Performance Plastics, Materials and Chemicals, Infrastructure and Consumer Solutions, but excludes Dow’s Electronic Materials business. Combined revenue for this branch totals an estimated $51 billion.
- The specialty products unit—called DuPont— includes DuPont’s Nutrition & Health, Industrial Biosciences, Safety & Protection and Electronics & Communications, as well as Dow’s aforementioned Electronic Materials business. Combined revenue for Specialty Products total approximately $12 billion.
Advisory Committees were established for each of the businesses. DuPont CEO Ed Breen would lead the Agriculture and Specialty Products Committees, and Dow CEO Andrew Liveris would lead the Materials Science Committee. These Committees were intended to oversee their respective businesses, and would work with both CEOs on the scheduled separation of the businesses’ standalone entities. Announced in February 2018, DowDuPont’s agriculture division is named Corteva Agriscience, its materials science division is named Dow, and its specialty products division is named DuPont. In March 2018, it was announced that Jeff Fettig would become executive chairman of DowDuPont on July 1, 2018, and Jim Fitterling would become CEO of Dow Chemical on April 1, 2018. In October 2018, the company’s agricultural unit recorded a $4.6 billion loss in the third quarter after lowering its long-term sales and profits targets.
In 2019, DuPont completed its spin off from DowDuPont.
In February 2020, DuPont announced that it is bringing back Edward D. Breen as its CEO after removing former Chief Executive Mark Doyle and CFO Jeanmarie Desmond less than a year after they assumed their roles. Lori D. Koch, previously head of investor relations, assumes the CFO position.
Regulation
The European Commission opened a probe to assess whether the proposed merger was in line with the EU’s respective regulations. The Commission investigated whether the deal reduced competition in areas such as crop protection, seeds and petrochemicals. The closing date for the merger was repeatedly delayed due to these regulatory inquiries.
Ed Breen said the companies were negotiating possible divestitures in their pesticide operations to win approval for the deal. As part of their EU counterproposal, the companies offered to dispose of a portion of DuPont’s crop protection business and associated R&D, as well as Dow’s acrylic acid copolymers and ionomers businesses.
The remedy submission in turn delayed the Commission’s review deadline to April 4, 2017. The intended spins of the company businesses were expected to occur about 18 months after closing. According to the Financial Times, the merger was “on track for approval in March” 2017. Dow Chemical and DuPont postponed the planned deadline during late March, as they struck an $1.6 billion asset swap with FMC Corporation in order to win the antitrust clearances. DuPont acquired the Corporation’s health and nutrition business, while selling its herbicide and insecticide properties.
The Commission conditionally approved the merger as of April, 2017, although the decision was said to consist of over a thousand pages and was expected to take several months to be released publicly. As part of the approval, Dow must also sell off two acrylic acid co-polymers manufacturing facilities in Spain and the US. China conditionally cleared the merger in May, 2017.
Reception
According to former United States Secretary of Agriculture during the Clinton administration, Dan Glickman, and former Governor of Nebraska, Mike Johanns, by creating a single, independent, U.S.-based and – owned pure agriculture company, Dow and DuPont would be able to compete against their still larger global peers.
On the other hand, if Monsanto and Bayer, the 1st and 3rd largest biotech and seed firms, together with Dow and DuPont being the 4th and 5th largest biotechnology and seed companies in the world respectively, both went through with the mergers, the so-called “Big Six” in the industry would control 63 percent of the global seed market and 76 percent of the global agriculture chemical market. They would also control 95 percent of corn, soybeans, and cotton traits in the US. Both duopolies would become the “big two” industry dominators.
The merger formed the world’s largest chemical company in terms of sales. DuPont is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.
Environmental record
Since the spin off, the company has adapted its marketing and branding in order to establish a new identity that is “fundamentally different” from DowDuPont. The company published a list of sustainability commitments to be achieved by 2030 in November 2019. DuPont was fined over $3 million for environmental violations in 2018. In 2019, DuPont led the Toxic 100 Water Polluters Index.
The film Dark Waters dramatized a legal case against the predecessor DuPont related to contaminating a town in West Virginia with unregulated toxic chemicals which poisoned thousands of individuals, this case led to DuPont finally settling all 3,535 cases for $670.7 million.