Nippon Paint Co., Ltd. (NPC) of Osaka, Japan has agreed to purchase the majority of Rohm and Haas Co.'s Automotive Coatings business. Specifically, NPC will purchase the wholly owned Rohm and Haas business in North America and Rohm and Haas' 50% share of the existing joint ventures with NPC, including Morton Nippon Coatings (MNC) in North America and Nippon Bee Chemical (NBC) in Japan and other Asian countries. Rohm and Haas had acquired these businesses through the acquisition of Morton International, Inc. in 1999.

"This transaction enables NPC to further enhance and expand its automotive coatings business by combining the automotive body coatings business and the plastic coatings business under a single global strategy," said Makoto Matsuura, NPC president.

For more information, visit www.nipponpaint.co.jp orwww.rohmhaas.com.