Topsoe (Copenhagen, Denmark) announced today that it has sold its automotive and stationary DeNOx operations to Umicore for 900 million Danish Krone ($134.9 million) plus an earn-out.
The agreement will entail an impairment loss in Topsoe’s financial statements for the current financial year of approximately DK400 million before tax, but will have a positive cash effect from the sale proceeds.
The divestment includes all employees and all technologies, intellectual property rights, and production and R&D facilities belonging to the two business areas in Denmark, the United States, China, and Brazil. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be finalized around year-end. The two operations accounted for 10% of Topsoe’s total 2016 revenue of DK5.8 billion.
“The agreement is in line with our strategic objective to be present in niche markets where we aim to be among the top three players. As the automotive and stationary DeNOx markets have evolved, that was no longer a realistic prospect for us, and we have acted on that. It is highly unusual for us to sell parts of our business, but as a top-three player within automotive catalysts, Umicore is better suited to continue the development and marketing of the world-leading stationary and automotive DeNOx products, we have developed,” says Bjerne Clausen, president & CEO of Topsoe.
The company will use the proceeds to sharpen focus on developing sustainable solutions that break new ground, and expand its core catalysts and technologies for the petrochemical and refining industries. “Based on our strong core competencies, we will continue to support our customers’ businesses with increasingly energy-efficient, clean, and integrated solutions,” Clausen says.
Some 280 Topsoe employees are transferring to Umicore. “They will play an important role in realizing our strategic goals in the future. With this agreement, we acquire state-of-the-art emissions control technologies and production facilities. These are an excellent addition to our extensive catalysts portfolio for clean air applications and make our offering to customers even more complete,” says Pascal Reymondet, executive vice-president/catalysis at Umicore.
By Natasha Alperowicz
Source: Chemical Week
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