The $454 million launch of Venator Materials as a publicly traded paint-pigments company earned Jon Huntsman Sr. and his son Peter Huntsman a chance to ring the opening bell Thursday at the New York Stock Exchange.
A subsidiary of Huntsman Corp., Venator Materials went public with the offer of 22.7 million ordinary shares at a price of $20 per share. Its ticker symbol is VNTR.
The offering will give the public 21.4 percent of Venator’s ordinary shares, and Huntsman Corp. will hold 78.6 percent. The public share could rise to 24.6 percent if underwriters exercise an option to buy up to 3.4 million more shares in the developer and manufacturer of titanium dioxide (“TiO2”) pigments and performance additives.
“All of the ordinary shares will be sold by Huntsman Corp.,” the release added. “Venator will not receive any proceeds from the offering.“
Huntsman Corp. created Venator after buying Rockwood Holdings Inc.’s pigment unit for $1.1 billion in 2014 and merging it with its own paint-pigments business. At the time, President Peter Huntsman said the purchase would “unlock value within our pigments business and builds on the strong improvements we have made to its competitiveness.”
At that IPO price, a Huntsman spokeswoman said Venator’s enterprise value tops $3 billion. A Bloomberg News report noted that Venator’s net losses were reduced to $77 million last year after reaching $352 million in 2015. Revenues in 2016 were listed at $2.1 billion.
Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp.and JPMorgan Chase & Co. were lead managers for the IPO.
Editor’s note: Paul Huntsman, a son of Jon Huntsman Sr., is the owner and publisher of The Salt Lake Tribune.
Follow @sltribmikeg