Petrochemical Industries and Dow Chemical Form Joint Venture

On July 1, 2004, Petrochemical Industries Co. (PIC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp., and the Dow Chemical Co. formed a new 50/50 joint venture, MEGlobal, for the manufacture and sale of monoethylene glycol and diethylene glycol (EG), which is a raw material for the manufacture of polyester fibres, polyethylene terephthalate resins (PET), antifreeze formulations and other industrial products. The amount of the transaction is undisclosed. MEGlobal serves EG customers around the world and has production facilities located in Fort Saskatchewan and Red Deer, Alberta. MEGlobal purchases ethylene from Dow. It also markets excess EG produced in Dow’s plants in the United States and Europe.

PIC was represented by Ogilvy Renault in Toronto, with a team that included Terence S. Dobbin, Andrew Fleming, Paul Fitzgerald and Eric Reither, Adrienne Oliver and Barry Segal (tax), Dany Assaf and Paul Feuer (competition), Michael McFadden (labour and employment) and Richard King (environmental). The Ogilvy Renault team also included Martin Rochette (pensions and benefits) from Montreal, D. John Naccarato (real estate) from Ottawa and Peter Noble from London. PIC was also represented by Ashurst in London, with a team led by Geoffrey Picton-Turbervill, which included Jeremy B. Sheldon, Louise Eccleston, Matthew Rickards and Christian Edwards, Julian Ellison and Matthew Hall (competition), Adrian Blomfield (environmental), and Richard Palmer (tax). The Edmonton firm of Reynolds Mirth Richards & Farmer provided Alberta real estate advice, with a team that included John Paul Janssens, Victor Lirette and Sonny Mirth, Q.C.

The Dow Chemical Co. and Dow Chemical Canada Inc. were represented by in-house counsel, Ken Isley, Mark Bradley, Charles Maurer (IP), Charles Hahn (tax) and Paul Bork (environmental). The Dow companies called on long-time outside counsel Bill Winters of Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer in Calgary for assistance with a team that included Alan Pettie, Robert Betteridge and Kathy Pybus (commercial); Mike Flatters (tax); Shawn Belecki (real estate); Alicia Quesnel (competition); and Gina Ross (employment). Rex Nielsen of Emery Jamieson in Edmonton provided advice to Dow on Alberta real estate matters. A team from Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton that included Andrew Curran, Christopher Ehrke and Peter Ollen in London, UK, Marc Waha and Robbert Snelders in Brussels, Dirk Schroeder in Cologne, and George Cary in Washington also advised Dow.