Third Point, the hedge fund founded by activist investor Dan Loeb, is about $141 million better off after the value of its Dow Chemical Co. stake jumped on reports that the company is in late-stage talks to merge with DuPont Co.
Third Point’s 23.5 million Dow shares had a market value of $1.34 billion at the close of trading on Wednesday. Dow shares soared 12 percent after news of the potential merger, which would be the largest in the chemical industry. Should the deal proceed, the merged Dow-DuPont would subsequently be broken into three separate businesses -- agriculture, commodity chemicals, and specialty chemicals -- people familiar with the situation said Tuesday.
