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Nova Chemicals Bought by Abu Dhabi Firm

Chuck Marvin

Nova Chemicals(NCX) has accepted a buyout offer from the Abu Dhabi investment firm International Petroleum Investment Co. (IPIC) worth roughly $2.3 billion on Monday.

IPIC will pay $6 per share for Nova, which was trading at $1.34 at the close of regular trading on Friday. IPIC will also assume all of Nova Chemical's outstanding debt, and will underwrite a $250 million credit backstop facility to help Nova Chemicals shore up liquidity.

Nova was caught in a cash squeeze along with its peers in the global petrochemical market as the global economy sunk into a recession last fall. The company accepted IPIC's buyout offer so that it can "meet all of its obligations to all of its stakeholders," according to a statement released Monday.

"The opportunity to join IPIC comes at a good time for NOVA Chemicals and will enable us to offer both stability and long-term growth to many of our stakeholders," said Jeff Lipton, CEO of NOVA Chemicals. "IPIC is well financed and has a track record of working successfully with companies like ours."

Nova and its subsidiaries produce basic plastics and other chemicals. The company is officially based in Calgary Canada but has a U.S. headquarters in Pittsburgh. Shares of Nova Chemicals are traded on the New York Stock Exchange and on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

U.S. shares of Nova Chemicals soared almost 300% on the merger news and were recently fetching $5.31 per share.

Elsewhere in the chemical space, Dow Chemical(DOW) was falling 6.9% at $7.60 per share, DuPont(DD) was 4.1% lower at $19.51 per share, and Rohm and Haas(ROH) was down 3% at $54.42 per share.