Huntsman Corp. sold to Europe company

The roughly 50 employees at Huntsman Corp.'s world headquarters in the Salt Lake office, as well as the 1,000 employees in the Houston area, will be unaffected by the acquisition at least for the next year, Peter Huntsman said. Huntsman Sr. said no decisions have been made as to what position he may hold in the new company.

The Huntsman Corp. name is expected to continue, Peter Huntsman said. Once the transaction is final, Huntsman Corp. will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Basell Holdings.

"We now become part of a $26 billion chemical company with 25,000 employees around the world," Peter Huntsman said. "How access to the parent group is to be structured and locations for headquarters is yet to be seen."

On Tuesday, shares of Huntsman on the New York Stock Exchange closed up $5.31 a share at $24.21, a 28.1 percent increase. In the past year, Huntsman Corp. stock had traded between $15.62 to $21.92.

Huntsman Corp. became a publicly traded company in February 2005, raising $1.45 billion in an initial public offering. The acquisition will again take Huntsman to a privately held company.

"This transaction enhances our position as a global industrial group with long-term strategic assets in the chemicals industry," Len Blavatnik, chairman and founder of Access Industries, said in a prepared statement. "Basell's management team has done an excellent job in growing and enhancing the company over the last two years, putting it in a position to make this acquisition. We look forward to further growth and profitability in this industry."

Access Industries, based in New York, acquired Basell in 2005 to become the world's biggest producer of polypropylene plastic.

Huntsman products include a broad range of chemicals and are marketed in more than 100 countries to consumer and industrial customers. Huntsman's products can be found in adhesives, aerospace components, appliances, automotive parts, construction products, electronics, footwear, furniture and bedding, medical devices, packaging, paints and coatings, power generation, refining, synthetic fiber, textile chemicals and dye industries.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. had nothing to say Tuesday about the sale of his family's company.

"Until the transaction is final, the governor doesn't have any comment," his spokeswoman, Lisa Roskelley, said. "Obviously, he doesn't have any financial interest or holdings in the company."

Huntsman Jr. stepped down from the company before entering the governor's race in 2003. He said he made between $15 million and $25 million when he sold his shares in Huntsman Corp. after the firm went public.

The governor's father first approached McDonald's with his clamshell container in 1974 but was turned away.