Nippon Paint offers €7.5 billion for AkzoNobel's decorative paints unit

Nippon Paint Holdings has offered €7.5 billion for AkzoNobel N.V.’s decorative paints business, a move that puts fresh pressure on a Dutch group already committed to a separate merger with Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. AkzoNobel confirmed it received multiple conditional and non-binding proposals from Nippon Paint for the unit, and said the latest approach implied an indicative enterprise valuation of €7.5 billion on a cash-free and debt-free basis.

The renewed interest comes after Nippon Paint, together with Sherwin-Williams, tried earlier this year to buy AkzoNobel in its entirety for €12.5 billion. That approach was rejected in May 2026, and the companies withdrew. AkzoNobel had argued that the earlier bid undervalued the company and lacked regulatory certainty.

Nippon Paint has not limited itself to a single offer. Over the past month, it made multiple proposals for the decorative paints arm, including a follow-up last week. AkzoNobel did not engage on the latest €7.5 billion proposal, saying the Nippon Paint offer is an alternative proposal under its merger agreement with Axalta, which restricts further engagement.

The timing matters because AkzoNobel and Axalta have already set shareholder meetings for August 5, 2026, to vote on their merger. Axalta has said completion remains subject to shareholder approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. AkzoNobel expects that transaction to close in late 2026 to early 2027.

The bidding underscores how aggressively coatings makers are still chasing scale. Decorative paints is a business built on brand strength, distributor reach and pricing discipline, and larger groups often use mergers to trim costs, widen product lines and better absorb raw-material swings. A successful deal would give Nippon Paint a larger footprint in decorative coatings and more reach across Europe, where AkzoNobel’s Dulux brand carries significant weight.

The wider market backdrop has also turned more uncertain. Tariffs imposed by Donald Trump on imported goods have added to valuation swings and pushed multinational industrial groups to reassess supply chains and market access. For suppliers, a larger merged buyer could mean tougher negotiations. For consumers and contractors, the competitive impact would depend on how much pricing power a bigger coatings group can exert in local markets.

If Nippon Paint eventually wins the asset, the competitive map in decorative paints would shift materially. If AkzoNobel stays with Axalta, the public pursuit still leaves management defending why a cash-rich offer for a core business was passed over while the company moved ahead with a separate industrial merger.