74 2013 ppg annual report and form 10-k 22 . separation and merger transaction on january 28 , 2013 , the company completed the previously announced separation of its commodity chemicals business and merger of its wholly-owned subsidiary , eagle spinco inc. , with a subsidiary of georgia gulf corporation in a tax ef ficient reverse morris trust transaction ( the 201ctransaction 201d ) . pursuant to the merger , eagle spinco , the entity holding ppg's former commodity chemicals business , became a wholly-owned subsidiary of georgia gulf . the closing of the merger followed the expiration of the related exchange offer and the satisfaction of certain other conditions . the combined company formed by uniting georgia gulf with ppg's former commodity chemicals business is named axiall corporation ( 201caxiall 201d ) . ppg holds no ownership interest in axiall . ppg received the necessary ruling from the internal revenue service and as a result this transaction was generally tax free to ppg and its shareholders in the united states and canada . under the terms of the exchange offer , 35249104 shares of eagle spinco common stock were available for distribution in exchange for shares of ppg common stock accepted in the offer . following the merger , each share of eagle spinco common stock automatically converted into the right to receive one share of axiall corporation common stock . accordingly , ppg shareholders who tendered their shares of ppg common stock as part of this offer received 3.2562 shares of axiall common stock for each share of ppg common stock accepted for exchange . ppg was able to accept the maximum of 10825227 shares of ppg common stock for exchange in the offer , and thereby , reduced its outstanding shares by approximately 7% ( 7 % ) . the completion of this exchange offer was a non-cash financing transaction , which resulted in an increase in "treasury stock" at a cost of $ 1.561 billion based on the ppg closing stock price on january 25 , 2013 . under the terms of the transaction , ppg received $ 900 million of cash and 35.2 million shares of axiall common stock ( market value of $ 1.8 billion on january 25 , 2013 ) which was distributed to ppg shareholders by the exchange offer as described above . in addition , ppg received $ 67 million in cash for a preliminary post-closing working capital adjustment under the terms of the transaction agreements . the net assets transferred to axiall included $ 27 million of cash on the books of the business transferred . in the transaction , ppg transferred environmental remediation liabilities , defined benefit pension plan assets and liabilities and other post-employment benefit liabilities related to the commodity chemicals business to axiall . during the first quarter of 2013 , ppg recorded a gain of $ 2.2 billion on the transaction reflecting the excess of the sum of the cash proceeds received and the cost ( closing stock price on january 25 , 2013 ) of the ppg shares tendered and accepted in the exchange for the 35.2 million shares of axiall common stock over the net book value of the net assets of ppg's former commodity chemicals business . the transaction resulted in a net partial settlement loss of $ 33 million associated with the spin out and termination of defined benefit pension liabilities and the transfer of other post-retirement benefit liabilities under the terms of the transaction . the company also incurred $ 14 million of pretax expense , primarily for professional services related to the transaction in 2013 as well as approximately $ 2 million of net expense related to certain retained obligations and post-closing adjustments under the terms of the transaction agreements . the net gain on the transaction includes these related losses and expenses . the results of operations and cash flows of ppg's former commodity chemicals business for january 2013 and the net gain on the transaction are reported as results from discontinued operations for the year -ended december 31 , 2013 . in prior periods presented , the results of operations and cash flows of ppg's former commodity chemicals business have been reclassified from continuing operations and presented as results from discontinued operations . ppg will provide axiall with certain transition services for up to 24 months following the closing date of the transaction . these services include logistics , purchasing , finance , information technology , human resources , tax and payroll processing . the net sales and income before income taxes of the commodity chemicals business that have been reclassified and reported as discontinued operations are presented in the table below: .

year-ended 2013: net sales: 108
income from operations before income tax: 2014
net gain from separation and merger of commodity chemicals business: 2192
income tax expense: -5
income from discontinued operations net of tax: 2197
less : net income attributable to non-controlling interests discontinued operations: 2014
net income from discontinued operations ( attributable to ppg ): 2197
year-ended 2012: net sales: 1688
income from operations before income tax: 345
net gain from separation and merger of commodity chemicals business: 2014
income tax expense: 117
income from discontinued operations net of tax: 228
less : net income attributable to non-controlling interests discontinued operations: -13
net income from discontinued operations ( attributable to ppg ): 215
year-ended 2011: net sales: 1732
income from operations before income tax: 376
net gain from separation and merger of commodity chemicals business: 2014
income tax expense: 126
income from discontinued operations net of tax: 250
less : net income attributable to non-controlling interests discontinued operations: -13
net income from discontinued operations ( attributable to ppg ): 237

income from discontinued operations , net of tax $ 2197 $ 228 $ 250 less : net income attributable to non- controlling interests , discontinued operations $ 2014 $ ( 13 ) $ ( 13 ) net income from discontinued operations ( attributable to ppg ) $ 2197 $ 215 $ 237 during 2012 , $ 21 million of business separation costs are included within "income from discontinued operations , net." notes to the consolidated financial statements .

Questions:
what was the change in net sales from 2012 to 2013?
and how much does that change represent in relation to the total net sales in 2012?

Answers:
-1588
-93%