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The chief executive of Dow Chemical, the US group that has been rocked by revelations of a secret plan to take it private, on Thursday launched an impassioned defence of his strategy, saying he had "earned the right" to run the company.

Andrew Liveris told the Financial Times that over the past few months he "felt I was in a rugby scrum" as takeover rumours intensified and the alleged plot to sell the company to a buyout group led to the sacking of two high-level employees.

The turmoil at Dow, the largest chemical group in the US, underlines the pressures faced by companies that attempt to overhaul their business while remaining listed, bucking the current trend for private equity takeovers.

Mr Liveris argued that the majority of shareholders backed his plan to reduce Dow's reliance on commodity businesses and focus on higher-margin products in an attempt to reduce the traditional cyclicality of its earnings.

"Few people remember that in 2002-2003 we were on our knees. We have earned the right to transform this company," he said, noting that unlike most of its competitors Dow wanted to remain independent and publicly listed.

The scale of Mr Liveris's task was highlighted by a 20 per cent fall in Dow's first quarter earnings to $973m caused by a slowdown in the US housing market and a decline in revenues from product licensing.

Although the decline in licensing revenues was expected and Mr Liveris gave an upbeat assessment of the rest of the year, investors sent Dow shares down more than 2 per cent to $45 in New York midday trading.

Mr Liveris praised the company for achieving these results, which were in line with Wall Street expectations, amid buyout rumours and the events that led to the sackings of the two employees - both of whom have denied any wrongdoing.

In a sign of its desire to reward investors and reduce their willingness to sell to private equity bidders, Dow increased its quarterly dividend by 12 per cent, to 42 cents per share, despite the slide in earnings.

Mr Liveris said his efforts to reduce the swings in Dow's earnings would benefit its shareholders.