DowDupont names its three new separate businesses

DowDuPont, the US company formed when chemical industry giants Dow Chemical and DuPont merged at the end of August 2017, has named the three independent businesses that it expects to spin by mid-2019, and has provided some more information about each of these companies. The announcement came on 26 February, roughly eight months after the US Justice Department approved the $130 billion merger.

The new company has dubbed its agriculture division, which will focus on seeds and crop protection, Corteva Agriscience, and its headquarters will be Wilmington, Delaware. DowDuPont’s materials science division, based in Midland, Michigan, will retain the Dow name and red diamond logo. It will focus on performance materials and coatings, packaging and specialty plastics, as well as ‘industrial intermediates and infrastructure’ to further manufacturing processes, and more.

Meanwhile, DuPont is the new name of DowDuPont’s third spinoff, which is its specialty products division. The company, which will also call Wilmington home, will concentrate on areas like electronics and imaging, industrial biosciences, safety and construction, as well as transportation and advanced polymers.

‘Our selection of these company names is a major milestone in the process of creating three, strong independent companies, and each name reflects the unique strengths and value proposition of the company it will represent,’ said Ed Breen, CEO of DowDuPont. The company expects that its materials science division will separate by the end of the first quarter of 2019, and that its agriculture and specialty products units will separate by 1 June, 2019. The company says the agriculture division had more than $14 billion in revenue in 2017, compared with $44 billion and $21 billion for the materials science and speciality products divisions, respectively.