Solutia Will Sell Itself Off In New Plan

Under a dramatically revised plan, Solutia says it will sell itself off whole and hand out cash, rather than fragmented slices of equity, to satisfy stakeholders.



These stakeholders include Monsanto Co. of Creve Coeur, which under an earlier reorganization plan would have wound up owning as much as half of Solutia, which has its headquarters in Town and Country.



Solutia's chief executive, Jeffry Quinn, said Wednesday that the change is positive because Solutia could emerge from bankruptcy early next year, with a single owner or ownership group that wants to hold and nurture a chemical company.



If Solutia's case follows a traditional bankruptcy path, it will present a preferred partner to the bankruptcy judge — a chemical company that wants to acquire Solutia for strategic reasons, or a financial institution that would set up a private-placement offering of Solutia's stock to a select group of investors.



Under the previous scenario, stock in a reorganized Solutia would have been split among parties interested primarily in recouping their losses — and, in the case of Monsanto, paying off a pile of environmental liabilities.



Solutia and Monsanto share a heritage. They were part of a conglomerate, which also was called Monsanto, that made chemicals, drugs, sweetener and agricultural products. The chemical unit spun out in 1997 to form Solutia. The remaining parent merged in 2000 with Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc. to form Pharmacia Corp.; that company spun off the agriculture division as the new Monsanto in 2000.



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