(Reuters) - Dow Chemical Co and DuPont have agreed to combine in an all-stock merger valued at $130 billion, creating a market leader that will then be split into three publicly-traded businesses covering agriculture, material sciences and speciality products.
Here are key points of the deal between two of the biggest and oldest U.S. chemical producers, which had both faced pressure from activist shareholders to create more value.
* The new company will be called DowDuPont. DuPont Chief Executive Officer Ed Breen will be CEO of the new company and Dow CEO Andrew Liveris would be executive chairman.
* It will have dual headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, currently DuPont's home town, and Midland, Michigan, where Dow has its headquarters.
* DuPont shareholders will receive 1.282 shares of DowDuPont for each DuPont share and Dow shareholders will get 1.00 share of DowDuPont for each Dow share. After preferred shares are converted, Dow shareholders will own 52 percent of DowDuPont.
* The merger will generate cost savings of about $3 billion in the first two years, with $1 billion in other savings possible.
* The new board would have 16 members, with each company contributing eight directors.
* DuPont expects 2016 sales growth to be "challenging," due to economic weakness in agriculture and emerging markets. It plans to slash about 10 percent of its work force and take a pretax charge of $780 million.
* The three-way split is likely to be 18 to 24 months after the deal closes, which is expected in the second half of 2016.
* The biggest of the three new companies by revenue would be material sciences, catering to the packaging, transportation and infrastructure industries. Major competitors would be Germany's BASF
* The speciality products company will sell materials to the electronics and communications industries as well as to the safety and protection sectors. The combined adjusted revenue was about $13 billion in 2014.
* The third business, selling seed and crop protection chemicals, generated adjusted revenue of about $19 billion.
(Writing by Jo Winterbottom in Chicago)
