CLEVELAND/MINNEAPOLIS – The Sherwin-Williams Co. and The Valspar Corp. have extended the termination date of the definitive agreement under which Sherwin-Williams will acquire Valspar from March 21, 2017 to June 21, 2017.

Sherwin-Williams previously reported in its 2016 year-end earnings release and 2016 Annual Report that it expected a divestiture would be required to gain approval from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to complete the Valspar acquisition. As previously disclosed, the expected divestiture represents annual revenues well below the threshold of $650 million of Valspar 2015 revenues, such that the Valspar transaction is expected to be completed at a price of $113 per share. At that time, Sherwin-Williams expected the divestiture and the Valspar transaction to be closed by the end of April 2017. 

Sherwin-Williams no longer believes the divestiture will be completed, and the Valspar acquisition closed, by the end of April, and expects to provide more definitive timing for the divestiture and completion of the Valspar acquisition on its first-quarter earnings conference call on April 20, 2017. The extension of the merger agreement to June 21, 2017, is intended to provide sufficient time to complete the Valspar acquisition.

John G. Morikis, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sherwin-Williams, said, “We continue to move forward on the divestiture of a single business that we believe will allow us to gain approval from the FTC, and we are in discussions with a number of prospective buyers.  We remain confident in our ability to complete the divestiture at a fair price, and we look forward to unlocking the value of the combined business when the Valspar acquisition closes.”