AkzoNobel Agrees to Divest Southeast Asian Paints Unit to Nippon Paint for $1.35 Billion

AkzoNobel announced on Monday that it has reached an agreement to sell its Southeast Asian decorative paints business to Nippon Paint for $1.35 billion, concluding its review of the Asian decorative paints portfolio.

The transaction encompasses decorative paints operations in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Papua New Guinea and Australia, the Dutch coatings company noted, adding that it anticipates net cash proceeds of roughly $1 billion after taxes and payments to minority stakeholders.

The Dulux‑branded firm previously sold its decorative paints operations in India for $1.6 billion and in Pakistan for €50 million.

“Completing the Asia portfolio review aligns with our ongoing strategy to concentrate on segments where we can secure differentiated scale and bolster our market position,” said AkzoNobel Chief Executive Greg Poux‑Guillaume in a statement.

The Indonesia portion of the deal is slated to close separately in late 2026, with the other transactions expected to finalize around mid‑2027.

AkzoNobel added that it will now concentrate on ensuring the successful completion of its merger with U.S. coatings producer Axalta, announced in November of the previous year.

In July, the Dutch firm disclosed that Nippon Paint had submitted several proposals to acquire AkzoNobel’s decorative paints business, valuing the unit at roughly €7.5 billion (about $8.44 billion).

This followed the June withdrawal of a €12.5 billion bid for the whole company that Nippon Paint had pursued jointly with U.S. paintmaker Sherwin‑Williams.

The Financial Times, which first broke the story of the Southeast Asia transaction, noted that Nippon remains interested in a broader deal for the decorative paint business, although integrating the Southeast Asia operations could keep the company busy for a while and AkzoNobel has no current plans to divest additional assets from that segment.

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