Arkema's shares jump after report of Elliott interest

SK Chemicals

25/02/2020 17:01

PARIS, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Shares in French speciality
chemicals group Arkema  AKE.PA  jumped on Tuesday after a media
report said the company was considering potential asset
disposals to pre-empt a campaign by activist fund Elliott
Management.
    Elliott, which has recently targeted French companies
including drinks maker Pernod Ricard  PERP.PA  and software firm
Altran  ALTT.PA , has built a small stake in Arkema, Bloomberg
reported, citing people close to the matter. 
    Both Arkema and Elliott declined to comment.
    There were no recent filings from French market watchdog AMF
reporting any Elliott stake in Arkema, meaning any position is
under a 5% threshold. 
    Arkema shares closed up 6.44%.
    A move by Elliott would highlight the increasing focus of
activist investors on French companies, despite their
traditional deterrents such as big stakes held by family owners
or governments. 
    The Bloomberg report said Arkema's CEO Thierry Le Henaff had
taken preemptive action to review the company's portfolio to
avoid any activist campaign or takeover interest. 
    Among options under consideration by the company are the
sale of a division that makes that makes glass-like polymers
worth more than 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion), according to the
Bloomberg report. 
    Last year, Arkema announced the sale of its functional
polyolefins business to South-Korean company SK Global Chemical
 285130.KS  for an enterprise value of 335 million euros 
($363.41 million).
    The deal is expected to complete in the second quarter of
2020.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN26Z0UN ($1 = 0.9218 euros)

 (Reporting by Matthieu Protard and Maya Nikolaeva, Editing by
Sarah White and Jane Merriman)
 ((matthieu.protard@thomsonreuters.com; +33-1-49495381;))