OREANDA-NEWS. Westlake Chemical, seeking to pressure Axiall management to reconsider its acquisition offer, appealed to shareholders in an open letter today.

Axiall on 29 January rejected a $2.9bn bid from Westlake, which already owns a 4pc stake. Subsequently, Westlake nominated its own slate of 10 directors to Axiall's board. Axiall's annual meeting has not been scheduled.

"Our proposal provides superior value to Axiall shareholders versus Axiall's announced plans," the letter stated. "We are concerned that Axiall's implementation of its standalone strategic plan could be destroying value rather than creating it."

In the latter half of 2015, Axiall laid off workers across the company to reduce costs and announced the sale of non-core building products businesses to shore up its balance sheet. Axiall recently divested a facility in Bradford, Ontario, that manufactures PVC additives, and a compounding facility in Concord, Ontario.

"Despite Westlake being one of a few potential buyers of the building products businesses, and our clearly expressed interest in these businesses, we have not been asked to participate in the divestiture of either the assets that were recently sold or the 'core building products' business that is currently being marketed," Westlake stated. "We believe that it would be in Axiall's and its shareholders' best interest to understand how we value these assets in our bid for the whole company."

Westlake operates a 290,000 t/yr cracker in Calvert City, Louisiana, in addition to another 1.3mn t/yr of ethylene capacity in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Axiall continues to pursue plans for a joint venture 1mn t/yr (2.2bn lb/yr) ethane cracker in Lake Charles, Louisiana with Lotte Chemical. Construction on that project is "well underway," Axiall chief executive officer Tim Mann told investors on 26 February.

A call to Axiall was not immediately returned.