May 6, 2009 (FinancialWire) — The Dow Chemical Co. (NYSE: DOW) has launched a public offering of the company’s common stock. Dow is looking to raise around $1.625 billion of capital. Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), City (NYSE: C), Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER), and HSBC Securities are acting as joint book-running managers,

Of the total capital raised, around $1 billion will be through shares offered by Dow and around $625 million will be through shares offered by accounts and funds managed by Paulson & Co. and trusts created by members of the Haas Family.

The investors have agreed to sell a portion of their shares of Dow’s perpetual preferred stock, series B to Dow at par plus accrued dividends for shares of common stock, which are subsequently being sold in the offering.

Dow said that the selling stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an additional number of shares equal to 15 percent of the total number of shares offered to cover over-allotments.

The company plans to use the $1 billion of proceeds it expects to receive from the offering to repay a portion of its $9.2 billion term loan agreement borrowings, under which it used to pay a portion of the purchase price for its recent acquisition of Rohm and Haas.

Dow said is also considering a potential benchmark offering of senior unsecured notes in addition to the equity offering.

Midland, Michigan-based Dow Chemical is a chemical company that offers a range of products and services to customers in around 160 countries. On April 1, Dow acquired Rohm and Haas, a global specialty materials company.

FinancialWire(tm) is a fully independent, proprietary news wire service. FinancialWire(tm) is not a press release service, and receives no compensation for its news, opinions or distributions. Further disclosure is at the FinancialWire(tm) web site (http://www.financialwire.net/disclosures.php). Contact FinancialWire(tm) directly via inquiries@financialwire.net.

Free annual reports for companies mentioned in the news are available through the Free Annual Reports Service (http://investrend.ar.wilink.com/?level=279).

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.