Dow Chemical back out of Rohm and Haas acquisition.

The Dow Chemical Company has confirmed that the acquisition of Rohm and Haas has stalled and will not take place on the 27th January, 2007 as planned.  This comes soon after the announcement by Dow that they had received FTC clearance to go ahead with the acquisition.

The usual econnomic reasons have been given but the key event for Dow has been the failure in December to complete a deal with Petrochemicals Industries Kuwait (PIC) and form the K-Dow JV.  There is still an interest from Dow to make the acquisition, but no clear position regarding when and if the financial situation will improve sufficiently.