Coatings, Adhesives & Sealants

H.B. Fuller Company said Friday it has priced a private offering of $850 million aggregate principal amount of 7.625% new senior unsecured notes due 2034 at an issue price of 100% of the principal amount. The notes are expected to close on or about October 21. Interest on the notes will be paid on a semi-annual basis.

RPM declared a quarterly dividend of $0.57 per share, a 5.6% increase from its prior dividend of $0.54. The dividend carries a forward yield of 2.3% and is payable October 30 to shareholders of record as of October 20, with an ex-dividend date of October 20. The increase marks the company's 53rd consecutive year of raising its cash dividend.

RPM International Inc. announced the election of Jeffrey D. Rowe to its board of directors, bringing the total to 12 members following the annual meeting of stockholders. Rowe currently serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Archer-Daniels-Midland Company, where he oversees three business units, four regions and global operations, R&D and sustainability functions. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Syngenta Group and spent more than two decades at DuPont Pioneer in executive leadership roles. Rowe will serve on RPM's governance and nominating committee. RPM Chairman and CEO Frank C. Sullivan said Rowe's global leadership experience and operational expertise across manufacturing, supply chain and innovation align with the company's strategic goals.

AkzoNobel is expected to offer divestments in its planned $25 billion purchase of Axalta Coating to try to allay concerns from European Union regulators. The remedies, expected to be filed next week with the European Commission, would involve the sale of certain overlapping businesses in the vehicle refinish market, according to a Bloomberg report on Thursday citing people familiar with the matter, while the EC's issues over the combination's impact on the powder coating markets have been dropped. The EC declined to comment to Bloomberg, and both AkzoNobel and Axalta didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Separately, Reuters reported that EC regulators will approve the deal with the remedies, and the filing from the companies next week will extend the current EC's Oct. 22 deadline by 10 working days. The EC has until Oct. 22 to decide if it will approve the deal or open an in-depth probe. AkzoNobel said on Monday that it agreed to sell its Southeast Asian decorative paints business to Nippon Paint for $1.35 billion, concluding its strategic review of its Asian decorative paints portfolio, and Axalta in November announced an all-stock merger with AkzoNobel to create a global coatings company valued at approximately $25 billion.

Kasikorn Securities, citing Reuters, reported that on October 5, AkzoNobel announced an agreement to sell its architectural coatings business in Southeast Asia to Nippon Paint for 1.35 billion dollars, or about 45.48 billion baht. The sale covers decorative paint operations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, and Australia. The Indonesia portion of the deal is expected to close in late 2026, while the remaining countries are expected to complete in mid-2027. The brokerage views this news as slightly negative for TOA, as it causes the company to miss an opportunity to invest in expanding its market share both domestically and abroad, even though the company currently has a strong cash position of approximately 10 billion baht and almost no debt. Looking ahead, competition in the industry is not expected to intensify. In Thailand, TOA holds more than half of the market, while in overseas markets the reduction in the number of players should keep competitive conditions unchanged or even ease. Kasikorn Securities therefore continues to select TOA as one of its Top Picks, citing its attractive valuation, its position as market leader in paints, and earnings trends that are stronger than other construction materials stocks. It recommends buying with a target price of 19.0 baht, versus the current share price of 14.80 baht, implying a 2026/27 PER of only 10 times and 9.4 times, below the industry average of about 14 times. The brokerage believes the share price decline already reflects concerns over still-high energy costs, while the company has the ability to pass on higher costs and its earnings estimates already factor in these pressures. First-half 2026 profit accounted for 59% of the full-year profit forecast.

RPM International is scheduled to report first-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Oct. 6, before the opening bell, with the Zacks Consensus Estimate for adjusted earnings per share at $1.95, down slightly from $1.96 over the past 30 days but still indicating 3.7% growth from the year-ago figure of $1.88. The consensus mark for net sales stands at $2.22 billion, implying 4.9% year-over-year growth, while the company expects consolidated sales to rise in the mid-single-digit range, with each of its Construction Products Group, Performance Coatings Group and Consumer Group segments also expected to grow in the mid-single-digit range. RPM expects previously announced SG&A reductions to generate $25 million in benefits in the quarter, partly offset by higher health care and benefit expenses, and it anticipates 5-6% raw material inflation with pricing increases already implemented to offset that inflation on a dollar basis. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA is expected to increase year over year in the mid-single-digit range, though a temporary supplier issue affecting propylene oxide-derived raw materials is expected to weigh somewhat on first-quarter sales growth. The company's earnings ESP is -1.64% and it carries a Zacks Rank of 4 (Sell), so the model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat.

AkzoNobel said on Monday it has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian decorative paints business to Nippon Paint for $1.35 billion, concluding its strategic review of its Asian decorative paints portfolio. The sale covers decorative paints operations in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, and Australia, the Dutch paints maker said, adding that it expects net cash proceeds of about $1 billion after tax and payments to minority partners. The Dulux paintmaker earlier divested its decorative paints operations in India and Pakistan for $1.6 billion and 50 million euros, respectively. The Indonesia deal is expected to close separately in late 2026, while the remaining transactions are expected to close around mid-2027. AkzoNobel said it will now focus on the successful closing of its merger with US coatings maker Axalta, which was announced last November.

Wendel finalized the sale of its stake in Stahl, excluding Muno, to Henkel for an enterprise value of €2.1 billion after receiving all required regulatory approvals. The transaction generated total net proceeds of approximately €1.14 billion for Wendel after debt and transaction costs, a multiple of 6.3 times its total investment since 2006, which included €427m of past proceeds, and an annualized IRR of over 15% over 20 years. That compares with a value of €960 million for Stahl in Wendel's net asset value published before the transaction announcement, as of September 30, 2025, a premium of about 20%. Wendel said the sale marks a key milestone in the roadmap it presented in early December 2025 and supports its long-term value creation and portfolio rotation objectives. In 2026 alone, Wendel announced significant asset disposals totaling €1.6 billion, completed the acquisition of Committed Advisors, and will return more than €500 million to shareholders, including a July share buyback representing 9% of its share capital.

Clariant has acknowledged the closing of the Stahl transaction between Wendel SE and Henkel, a deal that triggers its contractual obligation to sell its minority stake. Clariant held a minority stake of 14.6 % in Stahl Group, and its participation in the closing results in a preliminary cash proceed of CHF ~ 220 m pre-tax. The company said the existing shareholder agreement included a contractual obligation for Clariant as minority shareholder to participate in the transaction following notification from Wendel SE. The announcement was made in Muttenz on 01 October 2026.

Activist investor Ancora Holdings raised its bid for H.B. Fuller's building adhesives unit to as much as $1.4 billion after the chemicals company rejected its earlier offer last month. Ancora is offering to pay between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion in cash for the adhesives unit, up from a bid of as much as $1.2 billion last month, according to a letter sent to the Fuller board on Tuesday. The activist said it has obtained a "highly confident" letter from Fortress Investment Group related to being able to satisfy debt requirements, and that the offer is based entirely on publicly available information, with Ancora prepared to adjust its bid after due diligence. The revised bid represents roughly 50% of H.B. Fuller's current equity value, while the building adhesives segment accounts for only about 20% of consolidated revenue, and it values that unit at 8.5x to 9.9x LTM EBITDA and 9.0x estimated 2026 EBITDA, versus H.B. Fuller trading at about 7.0x 2026 EBITDA. Ancora CEO Fredrick DiSanto and President James Chadwick wrote that a negotiated transaction is a far better path for H.B. Fuller and its shareholders than an ongoing public disagreement, and Fuller shares have dropped 15% since the company rejected the Ancora offer on Aug. 24.

Yida Chemical announced on September 29 that it plans to issue shares to specific investors, raising total proceeds of no more than 636 million yuan. The funds will be directed to two projects: first, an annual production capacity of 200,000 tonnes of propylene oxide and ethylene oxide derivatives; second, a technical upgrade project at Zhuhai Yida Chemical for the purification, blending, and filling of 25,000 tonnes per year of PM, PMA, and thinner liquids.