A series of previously announced transactions completed Monday officially brought a close to DeSoto Inc.`s life as a consumer-paint supply company.
The Des Plaines-based firm, which last week held its last annual meeting in its old incarnation, completed the sale of the consumer-paint business to Sherwin-Williams Co. Monday for about $80 million.
Sherwin-Williams then sold DeSoto`s Chicago Heights manufacturing facility to Rohm & Haas Co. of Philadelphia. In a press release, Rohm & Haas said the Chicago Heights facility, which manufactures both paint and latex emulsion polymers, will continue to produce latex emulsions.
Sherwin-Williams will continue to operate the paint production ''for a period of time,'' however.
DeSoto said it also completed the sale of its industrial-coatings business for $135 million to Courtaulds PLC of London. Courtaulds, in turn, is selling portions of the coating operations to Valspar Corp. of Minneapolis, DSM Resins B.V. of the Netherlands and Rohm & Haas.
DeSoto, which remains a public company, is left with a household detergent business that supplies detergent to Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Lever Brothers, among others. The company has been Sears` largest supplier of Sears- brand laundry products for 25 years and supplied 100 percent of Sears`
detergent last year.
The divestiture of its other businesses came under pressure from New York-based Sutton Holdings Corp., which offered $50 a share for DeSoto last November. The DeSoto board rejected that overture from Sutton, saying it was not in shareholders` best interests.
DeSoto eventually agreed to sell most of its operations, thwarting the tender offer. Shareholders approved the sales of the operations last week; in addition to the paint and coatings businesses, it agreed to sell its surfactants and emulsifier businessto Witco Corp. of New York City.