Univar withdraws IPO after partial sale to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice

Univar, an independent chemicals distributor with 170 facilities and over 80,000 customers, withdrew its plans for an initial public offering on Wednesday. It had announced in September plans to sell a 42.5% stake to private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. Univar was previously listed on the NYSE until it was acquired by a Dutch company in 1996 and then split off and acquired by CVC in 2007 for $1.85 billion. The Redmond, WA-based company was originally founded in 1924 and booked $7.5 billion in sales for the 12 months ended June 30, 2010. It with the SEC to raise up to $863 million in its IPO; Goldman, Sachs & Co. and BofA Merrill Lynch were set to be the lead underwriters on the deal.