How now down Dow? A month after closing its disastrous acquisition of Rohm & Haas, Dow Chemical is making rapid progress in replacing the costly financing needed to pay for it. The gap arose when the Kuwaitis left Dow at the altar in December, denying the US chemical group $7.5bn in expected cash proceeds for their aborted K-Dow venture.

When Dow’s market value fell well below the $9.2bn bridge loan arranged for the Rohm purchase, the notion of paying down debt through divestitures or equity issuance appeared ludicrous. It is less so after a 150 per cent rebound in the shares, so Dow is seizing on this, as well as the thaw in credit markets, to raise some much-needed cash. It will issue $1bn in equity and redeem another $625m in expensive preferred shares sold a little over a month ago by exchanging them for common equity. Altogether, this might mean 105m new shares.