Dow to Sell Two US Plastics Businesses for $225 Million

As part of its plan to shed non-core assets, Dow Chemical has agreed to sell its sodium borohydride business and a polyolefin films plant in the US Ohio for a total of $225 million in total.

Vertellus Specialty Materials is expected to take the sodium borohydride business, while the polyolefin films plant at Findlay, Ohio, is seen as going to Valfilm North American Inc. Both sales are expected to close in early 2015.

With activist investor Daniel Loeb - of the hedge fund Third Point - breathing down CEO Andrew Liveris's neck, the chemical giant is under pressure to divest some commodity businesses to focus on high-margin products.

Recently, the group lifted its divestiture target to businesses worth $7- $8.5 billion by mid-2016.