Kuwaiti Firm to Pay Compensation to Dow Chemical, Alkhaleej Says

Kuwait’s Petrochemical Industries Co. agreed to make a first, partial compensation payment of 260 million Kuwaiti dinars ($921 million) to Dow Chemical Co. (DOW), Akhbar Alkhaleej reported, citing people it didn’t identify.

Petrochemical Industries Chairwoman and Managing Director Maha Mulla Hussein sent a letter to Kuwait’s Oil Minister Hani Hussain, telling him the company has agreed to make the payment, according to the Bahraini newspaper. A Kuwaiti newspaper, Al- Watan, carried a similar report on Aug. 26.

Hussein of Petrochemical Industries, a unit of state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Co., couldn’t be reached for immediate comment today because her mobile phone was turned off.

Dow Chemical Co., the largest U.S. chemical maker by sales, said in May that an arbitration panel ruled Kuwait must pay $2.16 billion in damages because the Gulf state canceled a 2008 agreement to buy a stake in the company’s plastics business. Kuwait’s Petrochemical Industries, under pressure from lawmakers, canceled a contract to form a 50-50 venture with Dow’s plastics unit in December 2008. The failure of the so- called K-Dow venture deprived Dow of a $9 billion payment during the global financial crisis and forced the company’s first dividend cut.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fiona MacDonald in Kuwait at fmacdonald4@bloomberg.net; Wael Mahdi in Manama at wmahdi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net