The blog still finds it hard to adjust to Dow Chemical's current financial status, following the K-Dow/Rohm & Haas episode. But facts speak for themselves. Earlier this week, S&P lowered Dow's debt rating to just above junk grade, on completion of the R&H deal.
However, news that Dow has sold R&H's Morton Salt to Germany's K&S, for a cash payment of $1.675bn, shows that the company hasn't forgotten all its negotiation skills. K&S are paying 6.2 times 2008 EBITDA of $270m, a reasonable multiple. And whilst salt is less cyclical business than polymers, Morton's 2006 EBITDA was only $138m.