The Board of Directors of ICI Pakistan Limited on Wednesday decided that ICI Pakistan should be divided into two entities, both of which will be listed on the Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad Stock Exchanges. One such entity will be AkzoNobel Pakistan Limited (comprising the Paints Business) and the other will be ICI Pakistan Limited (retaining all other businesses of ICI Pakistan).
The Board of Directors has also decided that the separation of the Paints Business should be achieved through a demerger, sanctioned by the court, and that this should be on the basis of the financial statements of the company as at June 30, 2011. The demerger is contingent upon approval by the shareholders, regulators and the High Court of Sindh.
It may be mentioned here that the board of directors of ICI Pakistan Limited had received a proposal from its ultimate holding company AkzoNobel N.y. to restructure its interest in ICI Pakistan Limited. The proposal envisaged separation of the Paints Business into a separate legal entity (Akzo Nobel Pakistan Limited) through a scheme of demerger. AkzoNobel informed the Board of ICI Pakistan Limited that it has conducted a strategic review of its businesses in Pakistan and concluded that ICI Pakistan's Paints Business offers clear commercial benefits for AkzoNobel and has sufficient opportunity to create value within its transformed portfolio and future strategic ambitions.
AkzoNobel further informed the Board that while the remainder of the ICI Pakistan portfolio is made up of robust and promising businesses with a strong and professional management team, they are not aligned with AkzoNobel's transformed portfolio and future strategic ambitions.-PR