Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) has completed the acquisition of Ikarus Petroleum Industries Company’s (Kuwaiti Company) equity interests in the Saudi Arabia-based Acetyl Complex for around $100.2m (SAR375.8m).
Sipchem has received all the necessary regulatory approval to buy stakes owned by Ikarus Petroleum Industries in International Acetyl Company and International Vinyl Acetate Company.
Following the deal, Sipchem’s equity interests in each of the acquired companies will increase from 11% to 87%, without affecting the ownership percentages of the remaining partners, including Germany-based Helm (10%) and the Supreme Council of Endowments (3%).
“Sipchem’s equity interests in each of the acquired companies will increase from 11% to 87%.”
With the transaction, Sipchem aims to increase the company’s and its shareholder’s profits in the long term.
The acquisition is a part of an agreement signed last June.
In 2005, Sipchem revealed its final investment decision to build an acetyls complex at Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia.
Named as Jubail Acetyls Complex, the facility features a 460,000t/y acetic acid facility, a 330,000t/y vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) plant, a 50,000t/y acetic anhydride factory, and a 345,000t/y carbon monoxide plant.
Both Sipchem and Ikarus operate plants in Jubail Industrial City.
During the signing of the deal with Ikarus, Sipchem CEO Ahmad A Al-Ohali stated the transaction was a part of Sipchem’s growth strategy to improve its equity investment in its affiliates.
Sipchem’s Acetyls products serves the downstream industry and construction materials, ink, paints and solvents manufacturing as well as other product sectors.
Source: Chemicals Technology
France has launched an offshore green hydrogen production platform at the country’s Port of Saint-Nazaire this week, along with its first offshore wind farm. The hydrogen plant, which its operators say is the world’s first facility of its type, coincides with the launch of another “first of its kind” facility in Sweden dedicated to storing hydrogen in an underground lined rock cavern (LRC).
The project sets up the Hydrogen Valley in Rome, the first industrial-scale technological hub for the development of the national supply chain for the production, transport, storage and use of hydrogen for the decarbonization of industrial processes and for sustainable mobility.
At first glance, hydrogen seems to be the perfect solution to our energy needs. It doesn’t produce any carbon dioxide when used. It can store energy for long periods of time. It doesn’t leave behind hazardous waste materials, like nuclear does. And it doesn’t require large swathes of land to be flooded, like hydroelectricity. Seems too good to be true. So…what’s the catch?
