Acquisitive Carlyle Group snaps up DuPont car paint for $4.9bn
DUPONT yesterday struck a deal to sell its slow-growing car paint business to private equity Carlyle Group for $4.9bn cash as it seeks to focus on higher-growth areas such as agriculture and nutrition.
The sale caps a nearly eight-month-long auction of the car paint unit, which has 11,000 employees and is expected to generate revenues of more than $4bn this year.
Carlyle outbid Apollo Global Management and a consortium of KKR & Co and Onex, which also submitted final bids in July, people familiar with the matter said.
After the sale, expected to close in the 2013 first quarter subject to regulatory approvals, DuPont said it will still generate more than $3bn through sales of advanced materials to the auto industry.
As part of the transaction, Carlyle will assume $250m of DuPont’s unfunded pension liabilities.
Carlyle has been particularly active of late, committing $1bn in private equity in the second quarter and announcing deals since then for which it will commit at least $1.6bn, co-chief executive William Conway said on 8 August.