Huntsman Corporation announced today that it has reached an agreement with Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank to settle Huntsman’s claims and end the ongoing trial against them in Texas state court for over $1.7 billion. Huntsman alleged that the two banks improperly interfered with its terminated merger agreements with Basell and Hexion Specialty Chemicals, Inc.
Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank are providing the following to Huntsman today:
- $620 million in cash
- $500 million senior secured term loan financing, 7 year term at LIBOR + 2.25%
- $600 million unsecured note financing, 7 year term at 5.5%
- $12 million reimbursement of litigation costs
Huntsman previously reached a $1.0 billion settlement with Hexion and Apollo in December of 2008, and today’s settlement brings the total cumulative settlement proceeds to over $2.7 billion, Huntsman said.
In their own joint press release, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank characterized the settlement as being for “$316 million each. In addition, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank will each provide USD 550 million of senior debt financing to Huntsman International LLC, a subsidiary of Huntsman, to be repaid over seven years…. We felt it was in our best interests to resolve the litigation for USD 316 million each. We are pleased to have the litigation behind us.”
