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NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of global chemical manufacturer Huntsman Corp. soared Tuesday on a report the company is in serious discussions to be bought out for more than $4.3 billion.
The company's shares rose $3.10, or 16 percent, to $22.50 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has traded in a range of $16.50 to $30 since the company went public nearly a year ago.
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, reported in Tuesday's editions that suitors for Salt Lake City-based Huntsman include private-equity firms and those with industry interests, naming takeover firm Apollo Management LP as a leading candidate.
Huntsman posted 2005 sales of about $11.49 billion and has a market capitalization of about $4.28 billion.
In Salt Lake early Tuesday, company spokesman Don Olsen declined to discuss reports of a possible sale. "Our position is we do not have a comment at this time, and that's where I better leave it," he said.
The company, which makes a range of products from polymers to base chemicals, was close to filing for bankruptcy in 2001 before MatlinPatterson Asset Management LP bought up much of its debt and 35 percent of its shares. The private-equity firm took Huntsman public in February 2005 at $23 a share. The Journal said MatlinPatterson had recently been pursuing buyers.
Jon Huntsman Sr. amassed a conglomerate of companies whose products included the clamshell container for the Big Mac. McDonald's Corp. abandoned the container in the 1990s in favor of more environmentally friendly packaging, but the Huntsman companies continued to grow by producing materials such as ethylene, propylene and polyurethanes used in a wide variety of products, from automotive materials to adhesives and paint.
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. stepped down as chairman and chief executive of Huntsman Family Holdings Co., the controlling shareholder in a $9.5 billion string of chemical manufacturing companies, after winning the governorship in November.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
