AkzoNobel shareholders to meet in September on US takeover bid

Under-pressure Dutch paintmaker AkzoNobel announced Tuesday it would hold a much-anticipated shareholders meeting in September to discuss a US takeover bid as one of the main opponents of the buyout announced he would retire next year.

Only days after chief executive Ton Buchner said he was leaving the world's leading paintmaker for health reasons, board chairman Antony Burgmans, who has been under fire for rejecting the takeover by rival PPG, said Tuesday he was retiring.

"AkzoNobel today convenes an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders (EGM)... on Friday, September 8, 2017," the company said in a statement.

On the agenda is "further explanation and discussion regarding AkzoNobel's response to the unsolicited and non-binding proposals made by PPG," it said.

Pittsburg-based PPG dropped a third takeover bid for AkzoNobel in early June, which would have valued the company at 26.9 billion euros ($30 billion). Under Dutch law, it now has to wait six months before making any new offer.

In a turbulent year, the maker of such brand names as Dulux and Trimetal also found itself embroiled in a legal battle with US-based activist investors Elliott Advisors after rejecting PPG's three unsolicited bids, which it said had undervalued the company.

An aggressive hedge-fund manager which owns 9.5 percent of AkzoNobel's shares, Elliott went to court to try to force a shareholders vote on Burgmans' future. Elliott lost the case, but has filed another one to a higher court.

As well as discussing the PPG moves, AkzoNobel shareholders will also vote in September on the appointment of Thierry Vanlancker as the new chief executive to replace Buchner.

Burgmans, another prominent opponent of the the takeover, also made the surprise announcement he would retire "following the completion of my third term in office in April 2018".

"A process is now underway to identify my successor," he added in a statement.

AkzoNobel also revealed Tuesday that net profit slid 4 percent in the second quarter from the same period last year, to 301 million euros, due in part to increase costs of raw materials.

Sales rose by 2 percent to 3.79 billion euros.

source: AFP