DuPont, Dow Chemical to close merger on Aug. 31

Three weeks.

That is how much time is left for DuPont as an independent company after 215 years as a Delaware institution.

The company that has been synonymous with Delaware for two centuries will merge with the Dow Chemical Co. on Aug. 31.

"All required regulatory approvals and clearances have been received ... all conditions to closing of their merger of equals have been satisfied and that their merger of equals will close after the market closes on August 31, 2017," the companies said in a statement.

The companies will combine to form DowDuPont. Shares of DowDuPont will begin trading under the stock ticker DWP on Sept. 1.

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It had been known for some time that Dow and DuPont would complete the nearly $150 billion merger in late August. However, announcing an official date brings home the reality of a Delaware without a standalone DuPont for some state residents.

"It makes it more real," said Rich Heffron, president of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce. "But if you've been here for the past 30 years, you saw this coming. There was always the possibility there would be no DuPont in Delaware."

Heffron said when he first moved to Delaware, about two-thirds of the residents in his apartment complex worked at DuPont.

"I doubt anyone over the age 40 or 50 didn't know someone in their neighborhood or family who didn't work at DuPont," he said. 

James Butkiewicz, chair of the University of Delaware's economics department, said it is time for residents to move on and focus on what DowDuPont and its three spinoffs will do for the state. 

DowDuPont will exist for only about two years before it breaks apart into three separate, publicly traded companies. 

Two of those new businesses — with focuses on agriculture and specialty products — will be based in Delaware. A third spinoff will be a material sciences company headquartered in Midland, Michigan, the hometown of Dow.

"The only thing we can do is get on to the next phase and hope it goes as well as it can for the state," Butkiewicz said. 

In fact, Delaware could end up with more than two spinoffs. Dow and DuPont have tapped business management consultant McKinsey & Co. to review its postmerger spinoff plans. The companies hired McKinsey amid pressure from activist investors to realign the new businesses. 

DuPont's most recent spinoff, Chemours, has benefited Delaware. After a rocky start in which it struggled to turn a profit, Chemours has rattled off four straight consecutive quarters of double-digit growth. 

Butkiewicz said Chemours is an example of the growth potential for DuPont's two Delaware legacy companies.

"Look what happened with Chemours," he said. "If these two companies work as well as Chemours, it will be good for Delaware."

Contact Jeff Mordock at (302) 324-2786, on Twitter @JeffMordockTNJ or jmordock@delawareonline.com.