Union Carbide Details Major Reorganization

Union Carbide on Friday announced details of a major corporate shake-up that it said it hopes will make the company more profitable but denies is intended to fend off financial raiders.

The embattled company said six division presidents were demoted and 12 chemical units consolidated into seven. In addition, Carbide said it will soon announce a shake-up of its consumer products and services group.

One demoted president headed the division responsible for plants in India and West Virginia where major poison gas leaks occurred in the last nine months.

The move came the same day that New Jersey-based GAF Corp. raised its ownership of Carbide stock to 9.9% and said it wants to acquire up to 15%.

Not Defensive Strategy

Analysts have speculated that GAF might be trying to gain control of the giant chemical company, but Carbide spokesman Tom Sprick denied that the restructuring is part of a defensive strategy.

“I don’t think you can make any correlation between the two at all,” Sprick said. He said the reorganization is meant “to capitalize on the markets as we see them.”

Chemical and plastics division President Robert D. Kennedy said the moves, taken with the company’s plans to eliminate 4,000 white-collar jobs, will allow Carbide “to meet our financial objectives.”

Leslie Ravitz, who analyzes Carbide and other chemical companies for the Salomon Bros. brokerage house in New York, said that the move was no surprise but that the chemical leaks simply speeded up corporate plans.

“The reorganization of the company was in the planning stage in the fall of 1984, and, after a series of events, there was a bigger need for change,” Ravitz said.

Ravitz also said he doesn’t see the restructuring, along with the layoffs and a stock buy-back that Carbide announced Wednesday, as an attempt to improve the company’s image in the wake of the chemical leaks.

“You don’t lay off 4,000 people for public relations,” Ravitz said.