Dan Loeb’s Third Point LLC Asks The Dow Chemical Company (DOW) To Release Value

In an interview with CNBC, Andrew Liveris, the chairman & CEO of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW), speaks about shareholder activism and also about Dan Loeb, and his hedge fund’s, Third Point, stake in the company.

Dan Loeb’s Third Point, which holds around 5.1% of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW), has been putting some pressure on the company to change its ‘integrated strategy’ i.e. Loeb has been suggesting the company to sell chemicals as ethylene, propylene, etc. more in the open market and less in the making of consumer products.

Speaking about Third Point, Liveris said that The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) had been in talks with Third Point and the company has been mentioned in various letters by the hedge fund but it has never received any letters directly from them.

He added that Third Point had been focusing mainly on different ways of releasing value to investors.

“Of course they [Third Point] made a suggestion around split up. Look, Warren Buffet, I think, said it very well in one of the previous programs, I reported. He told me: run the company for those investors who are staying, not for those investors who are leaving,” said Liveris.

Liveris added that the company is divesting and that the company is divesting its chlorine business which has been there for nearly 117 years with The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) and that the company is also thinking on the same lines as investors are in terms of releasing more value.

The company had also lined up other assets for sale which included its epoxy business, as well as some of its brine and energy assets. In addition, on October 2013 the company had said that it expected to raise around $3 billion to $4 billion from the sale of some of its assets over a period of 18 to 24 months.

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