AkzoNobel to sell Southeast Asia paints business to Nippon Paint for $1.35 billion

Oct 5 (Reuters) - AkzoNobel said on Monday it has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian decorative paints business to Nippon Paint for $1.35 billion, completing a review of its Asian decorative paints portfolio.

The sale covers decorative paints operations in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Papua New Guinea and Australia, the Dutch paints maker said, adding that it expects net cash proceeds of about $1 billion after tax and payments to minority partners.

The Dulux paintmaker earlier divested its decorative paints operations in India and Pakistan for $1.6 billion and 50 million euros, respectively.

"The successful completion of our Asia portfolio review is part of an ongoing strategy to focus our portfolio on areas where we can achieve differentiating scale and strengthen our position," AkzoNobel Chief Executive Greg Poux-Guillaume said in a statement.

The Indonesia deal is expected to close separately in late 2026, while the remaining transactions are expected to close around mid-2027.

AkzoNobel said it will now focus on the successful closing of its merger with US coatings maker Axalta , which was announced in November last year.

Nippon Paint submitted multiple proposals to acquire AkzoNobel's decorative paints business, the Dutch company said in July, valuing it at about €7.5 billion ($8.44 billion). 

That approach followed the withdrawal of a €12.5 billion bid for the entire company that Nippon Paint had pursued jointly with US-based paintmaker Sherwin-Williams in June.

The Financial Times, which earlier reported the Southeast Asia deal, said Nippon remains interested in a larger deal for the decorative paint business, but that integration of the Southeast Asia business could occupy the company for some time and AkzoNobel does not have plans to sell further assets from the business. 

($1 = 0.8887 euros)

(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Nia Williams and Subhranshu Sahu)