Deals
Dutch See Red Over Foreign Bid for Paint Giant
- Finance, economy ministers weigh in against U.S. company
- Netherlands, long open to such deals, becomes more protective
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PPG Industries Inc.’s unsolicited $22.1 billion bid for Dutch paint company Akzo Nobel NV tapped into the growing opposition to foreign hostile takeovers in the Netherlands, where politicians have long refrained from meddling.
With national elections looming Wednesday and nationalist sentiment on the rise, politicians from Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem to Economy Minister Henk Kamp and members of parliament weighed in against the transaction, saying it would be bad for the country and its economy. Akzo Nobel played up the sentiment, tweeting a Bloomberg News article about its rejection of the approach with the hashtag #DutchPride.