Huntsman Corp., the massive chemicals maker founded by Jon Huntsman, Sr., is being shopped by Bank of America to a coterie of private equity firms, Reuters reported yesterday.
Among the potential bidders? None other than Bain Capital.
“The calls come after Huntsman’s founder, Jon Huntsman, said in March that the company was open to all options to create shareholder value,” according to Reuters’ report.
A Bain buyout would help Huntsman Corp., whose stock price has fallen nearly 30 percent in the past year. It would also be an incredibly useful bit of deal news for political metaphor lovers, since, with enough stretching, it could be said that Mitt Romney was literally buying one of his Republican rivals. (Even though neither Romney nor Jon Huntsman, the younger, holds positions at Bain Capital or Huntsman Corp. Details!)
Huntsman could still decide not to sell, of course, or to sell to a different bidder. But even if a deal falls through, the Huntsman family can breathe easy knowing it has Abby’s Huffington Post show to fall back on.
