No chemistry between Clariant and Rhodia?
France's Rhodia company says it held "preliminary" talks with the Clariant specialty chemicals company of Basel on a possible merger.
A Rhodia spokesman said the two companies had come to the conclusion that a merger would not be beneficial to either party.
He added that the discussions had started in the summer and were broken off last week.
The Clariant specialty chemicals company of Basel declined comment.
According to the French daily newspaper “Le Figaro”, Clariant took the initiative to stop the talks over disagreement over the scale of restructuring needed as a result of a merger.
Clariant’s outlook
In October, Clariant reported disappointing sales and earnings figures for the third quarter and said the uncertain outlook for the development of the global economy did not offer very good prospects for a recovery in earnings for the remainder of the year.
In 2000, the company reported sales of SFr10,583 billion ($6.37 billion) and a profit of SFr630 million.
Clariant tried to merge with its Basel competition, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, in 1998 but the venture collapsed after only a month, with both sides saying that the failure was due to the very high risks involved.
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