DuPont expects SEC review of Dow deal to end by June 30

DuPont said on Tuesday it expected the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's review of its proposed merger with Dow Chemical Co to be completed by the end of June.

The two chemical companies agreed to combine in an all-stock merger in December, valued at $130 billion at the time, in a first step toward breaking up into three separate businesses.

"We are shooting for October-November kind of close of the transaction," DuPont Chief Executive Edward Breen said on a post-earnings call.

"Everything with the merger with Dow is right along the track we thought it would be ... filings in jurisdictions around the world have happened on the schedule we needed," he told Reuters.

DuPont said last month that the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice had requested additional information and materials to assess the merger.

DuPont indicated on Tuesday that the second request under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvement Act was anticipated and "everything is according to the timeline".

DuPont said it was aiming to buy back $2 billion of shares in 2016, and would make the repurchases after shareholders vote on the deal, expected to be held after completion of the SEC review.

DuPont on Monday reported a better-than-expected first-quarter profit and raised its 2016 earnings forecast, citing a weakening of the dollar against "most currencies."

DuPont shares were up about 2.2 percent at $67.42 on Tuesday. Up to Monday's close, they had fallen by about 7 percent over the past 12 months.

(Reporting by Swetha Gopinath and Amrutha Gayathri in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Anil D'Silva)

Tue Apr 26, 2016

Source: http://www.reuters.com/