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CHEMICALS and science-based product company DuPont has announced plans to split from its electronics and water businesses to create three distinct, publicly traded companies.
After the separation, DuPont will continue as a diversified industrial company, allowing the independent electronics and water businesses to benefit from increased focus and agility in their respective industries.
“The three-way separation will unlock incremental value for shareholders and customers and also create new opportunities for employees. Critically, each company will have greater flexibility to pursue their own focused growth strategies, including portfolio enhancing [mergers and acquisitions],” said Ed Breen who, after eight-and-a-half years as CEO, became executive chairman on 1 June.
DuPont expects to complete the separations within 18–24 months.
The separation comes five years after the split of DowDuPont into three separate companies: Dow, DuPont, and Corteva Agriscience.
In 2019, DowDuPont also announced it was spinning off its safety and sustainability consultancy.
New DuPont
After cleaving off electronics and water, DuPont expects to be a premier diversified industrial company.
DuPont anticipates that the separated company will have a strong presence in fast-growing healthcare end-markets including applications for biopharma consumables, medical devices, and medical packaging.
The company also expects it will lead in key technologies that enable advanced mobility, particularly within electric vehicles.
It will also provide advanced technologies for safety, construction, aerospace, and industrial-based end-markets.
The new DuPont will comprise of the existing businesses within the water and protection segment (excluding water solutions), the majority of its businesses within industrial solutions (including healthcare), and retained businesses reported in corporate, including adhesives.
Electronics
The electronics company will comprise the existing semiconductor technologies and interconnect solutions business, along with electronics-related product lines currently within the industrial solutions business. It will provide differentiated electronics materials including consumables used in semiconductor chip manufacturing, and advanced electronic materials to enable reliable signal integrity, power management, and thermal management.
DuPont expects that the company will be well positioned to capture growth in the semiconductor industry, driven by high-performance computing demands in artificial intelligence (AI), high speed connectivity, smart and autonomous vehicles and the Internet of Things (IoT), and other mega-trend growth drivers.
Semiconductors are essential components of electronic devices used in daily life and industry, allowing advances in applications such as clean energy, manufacturing, and transportation, as well as technologies such as AI, IoT, quantum computing, and advanced wireless networks.
Water
The separated water company will have a comprehensive portfolio of water filtration and purification technologies, including reverse osmosis, ion exchange, and ultrafiltration.
Comprising DuPont’s current water solutions business, the company will provide critical components and systems that generate clean and fit-for-purpose water across a variety of market segments. These include industrial water and energy, life sciences and specialties, municipal and desalination, and residential and commercial.