Germany’s Evonik expects the sale of its methacrylate business to US firm Advent International to be completed by 31 July, a source from the company confirmed on Tuesday.
This follows approvals from the European Commission earlier in the month for the €3bn sale to the private equity fund.
The transaction includes the Methacrylates, Acrylic Products and CyPlus business lines, as well as some methacrylate resins activities.
The methacrylates business has 18 production sites and 3,900 employees worldwide.
It generated an average annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of about €350m and sales of about €1.8bn/year in 2016-2018 and similar levels are expected for 2019.
There had been some concerns in the wider market over the sale, with MMA prices on a downward cycle for the last 14 months.
Evonik has contacted its customers to confirm the existing contracts will be assigned to the new company.
Buyers said they are expecting “business as usual” after the sale is completed.
According to some, the deal’s completion was good news after the uncertainty caused by a transaction which, for its magnitude, could affect the market’s dynamics.
The new company has not been named yet.
“We are not expecting any major changes to the current dynamics, they will fulfil current agreements,” said one trader.
“The sale is going through, which puts my mind at ease,” said one methyl methacrylate (MMA) buyer.
Source: ICIS News
Neste Corporation’s Board of Directors has appointed Heikki Malinen, M.Sc. (Econ.), MBA (Harvard) as the President and CEO of Neste as of 2 November 2024, at the latest. Malinen joins Neste from Outokumpu Corporation where he has held the position of President and CEO since 2020.
Petrochemicals company Sasol has announced that CFO and executive director Hanré Rossouw will step down from his position, effective October 31. Sasol has started the process to appoint a successor. Rossouw will still oversee the publication of Sasol’s reports for the financial year ending June 30, to allow for a structured handover period.
Chemours announced its CFO Jonathan Lock has resigned from all positions within the company, according to an SEC 8-K filing on April 23. The resignation comes in the aftermath of the company announcing that Lock, former CEO Mark Newman, and principal accounting officer Camela Wisel, had been placed on administrative leave.
