Grace Drops Plan to Acquire Crosfield Group

W.R. Grace & Co., a specialty chemicals producer, said it won’t buy the Crosfield Group unit of Britain’s Imperial Chemical Industries for $455 million because it couldn’t get U.S. regulatory approval. Grace said April 2 that it planned to complete the deal by midyear. But it twice delayed the purchase for Federal Trade Commission review, hindering its plan to focus on specialty chemicals after years of selling off unrelated businesses. Grace would not comment on why the transaction ended, but analysts said it was probably because the FTC asked Grace to sell off parts of Crosfield. Grace, with $1.5 billion in 1997 sales, also said it expects to meet analyst estimates when it announces third-quarter earnings next Thursday. It is expected to earn 29 cents a share, according to five analysts surveyed by First Call Corp. On the New York Stock Exchange, shares of Boca Raton, Fla.-based Grace rose $1.38 to close at $11.75, while Imperial’s American depositary receipts fell $2.81 to $33.44.