Dutch paints giant AkzoNobel said on Monday it has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian decorative paints business to Japan's Nippon Paint for $1.35 billion (about €1.20 billion), completing a review of its Asian decorative paints portfolio. The company will now focus on closing its planned merger with U.S. coatings maker Axalta.
The sale covers decorative paints operations in seven markets: Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, and Australia. AkzoNobel expects net cash proceeds of around $1 billion (€0.9 billion) after taxes and payments to minority partners. The company will retain full ownership of its coatings business and its Global Business Services organization. The agreements remain subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals: the Indonesian business is expected to close separately in late 2026, with the remaining transactions around mid-2027.
The deal is the final piece of AkzoNobel's Asian slim-down. The company previously divested its decorative paints operations in India and Pakistan for $1.6 billion and €50 million, respectively. "The successful completion of our Asia portfolio review is part of an ongoing strategy to focus our portfolio on areas where we can achieve differentiating scale and strengthen our position," Chief Executive Greg Poux-Guillaume said in a statement.
Nippon Paint's appetite for AkzoNobel is nothing new. In July, the Japanese company submitted multiple proposals to acquire AkzoNobel's decorative paints business, valuing it at about €7.5 billion ($8.44 billion). A month earlier, Nippon Paint had jointly pursued a €12.5 billion bid for the entire company alongside U.S.-based Sherwin-Williams, before withdrawing it. For Nippon Paint, Asia's largest coatings maker, the Southeast Asia acquisition deepens its footprint in some of the world's fastest-growing paint markets, where rising urbanization and construction spending continue to lift decorative-paints demand. The Financial Times, which first reported the Southeast Asia deal, said Nippon remains interested in a larger decorative-paints transaction, but that integrating the Southeast Asia business could occupy the company for some time — and that AkzoNobel has no plans to sell further assets from the business.
With the portfolio restructuring concluded, AkzoNobel said it will focus on completing its proposed merger with Axalta, announced last November, a transaction aimed at strengthening its position in the global coatings industry. AkzoNobel shares closed Friday at €56.68, up 2.24%. For AkzoNobel investors, the divestiture also crystallizes value from a portfolio review that began earlier this year, with net proceeds expected to strengthen the balance sheet ahead of the Axalta combination.