€7.5 billion acquisition offer falls through! AkzoNobel rejects Nippon Paint's bid

On July 13, Japanese paint leader Nippon Paint Holdings disclosed externally that it has submitted an acquisition intention to Dutch global paint giant AkzoNobel, planning to spend 7.5 billion euros to acquire its core decorative paints business segment, causing a shock to the M&A landscape of the global paint industry.

On the same day, AkzoNobel simultaneously released an official response announcement, confirming receipt of multiple conditional and non-binding acquisition proposals from Nippon Paint regarding its decorative paints business, and directly stated that it considers the 7.5 billion euro offer to seriously undervalue the true asset value of its decorative paints segment and holds a negative attitude towards this acquisition invitation.

The company's Management Board and Supervisory Board reached a unified position, explicitly reiterating to the outside that they continue to unanimously promote the previously finalized plan for a merger of equals with the American paint company Axalta Coating Systems, regarding this cross-US-Europe giant merger transaction as the current optimal development path for the enterprise.

Comparison of the Scale of Two Major Transaction Targets: Decorative Paints as AkzoNobel's Core Revenue Pillar

Public operating data shows that AkzoNobel's total sales for the full year of 2025 reached 10.158 billion euros, equivalent to approximately 11.514 billion US dollars, with business covering multiple tracks including decorative paints, specialty industrial coatings, and high-end chemicals.

Among them, the decorative paints business is the group's stable revenue foundation. The single segment achieved full-year sales revenue of 4.09 billion euros, contributing nearly 40% of the enterprise's revenue. The business covers global home decoration and architectural engineering wall coating markets, possessing leading civilian paint brands in multiple countries, a comprehensive channel network, and mature localized production capacity. It possesses extremely strong stable cash flow and is also a high-quality asset that Nippon Paint strongly covets.

Intensified Gaming in Industry Landscape; Two M&A Routes Form Direct Competition

This acquisition proposal means that two distinct integration routes have appeared simultaneously in the global paint industry:

First, Japan's Nippon Paint seeks to horizontally acquire European leading civilian paint assets to quickly make up for shortcomings in the European and American decorative paints markets. Nippon Paint leads in market share in the Asia-Pacific region, but its local channels and brand power in Europe and the US are relatively weak. If the acquisition is completed, it will一举 take over AkzoNobel's home decoration paint production and sales system spread across Europe, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, significantly narrowing the scale gap with top industry enterprises.

Second, AkzoNobel insists on advancing the merger of equals with Axalta. Both parties are deeply engaged in the architectural decorative paints and automotive industrial coatings tracks respectively. After the merger, they can achieve full coverage of both civilian and industrial coatings, forming an all-category paint giant spanning the European and American markets, with synergies concentrated in the fields of industrial coatings, automotive coatings, and high-end protective materials.

Industry analysis points out that there are two core reasons for AkzoNobel rejecting Nippon Paint's acquisition offer:

On one hand, the 7.5 billion euro consideration fails to match the comprehensive value of the decorative paints segment's stable profitability, global channels, and brand assets;

On the other hand, the merger of equals with Axalta belongs to a two-way equal integration, which will not result in the acquisition of a single enterprise or the outflow of control rights, better aligning with the group's long-term globalization and all-category development strategy.

The market will continue to track the progress of the two major transactions:

Whether Nippon Paint will raise its acquisition offer and resubmit a proposal;

Whether the merger plan between AkzoNobel and Axalta can smoothly pass antitrust reviews in various countries; the two M&A proposals may reshape the future competitive landscape of the global paint industry.