Ineos is continuing to look at ways to “optimize and improve our integrated pan-European asset base,” but it has no major restructuring plans that would affect its core operational activities, an Ineos spokesperson said Feb. 26.
The company was responding to a request for comment from CW related to Feb. 25 reports in the UK’s Financial Times and Guardian newspapers that Ineos was in preliminary talks about the potential sale of some assets operated by its wholly owned chlor-vinyls subsidiary, Ineos Inovyn.
“Ineos continually reviews its portfolio and capital structure to ensure the business remains strong, resilient and well-positioned for the long term,” the spokesperson said. “In challenging market conditions for the global chemicals industry, it is prudent management to explore refinancing options.”
Ineos has recently secured additional equity and financing support, demonstrating the confidence of its shareholders and lenders in the underlying quality of its assets and operations, he said. “Our focus remains on disciplined cost control, maintaining liquidity and refinancing debt as it falls due, not raising new funding for expansion.”
The Ineos statement did not refer to the media reports of early talks being held about the potential sale of some of Inovyn’s chlor-vinyl assets, which cited people familiar with the matter.
The company’s founder and majority owner, Jim Ratcliffe, and other senior management figures have consistently called for urgent political action to restore competitiveness in Europe’s chemical sector in the face of rising costs, environmental taxes and cheap imports.
Plant closures
Ineos, through its two main petrochemical holding companies, Ineos Group Holdings Ltd. and Ineos Quattro Holdings Ltd., has mothballed, closed or announced plans in 2025 to close several petchem plants in Europe. The two holding companies held combined debts of more than €17 billion at the end of last year.
In a fourth-quarter trading statement for Ineos Group Holdings, dated Feb. 24, the company said that in “response to the challenging market conditions,” it has implemented and maintained a number of measures to conserve cash. This has included policies to control all discretionary fixed costs across the businesses and a “review of all capital projects to defer or reduce discretionary expenditure and scheduled turnarounds where it is safe to do so,” it said.
The group has also “implemented ongoing business restructuring initiatives to review its asset portfolio and close or mothball specific plants where considered appropriate to improve utilizations and reduce fixed costs,” it said.
Both Ineos Group Holdings and Ineos Quattro Holdings included similar comments in several of their quarterly unaudited results statements over the course of 2025.
Ineos Group Holdings, which operates Ineos’ olefins and polyolefins (O&P) and chemical intermediates businesses, said in its latest trading statement that its net debt was approximately €11.7 billion at the end of December 2025 and that its cash balances were €2.58 billion. The company had also extended its €800 million trade receivables securitization program for a further three years to December 2028, it said. Net debt leverage was approximately 6.4× (times) as of the end of December 2025, it said.
The company’s EBITDA in the fourth quarter was €212 million, down from €353 million a year earlier and €375 million in the third quarter of 2025, it said. Full-year EBITDA of €1.31 billion slumped from €2.05 billion in 2024. The fourth-quarter results were adversely impacted by approximately €83 million due to scheduled major turnarounds at the Lavera facility in France as well as the Mobile and Pasadena plants in its US phenol business, it said.
Markets in Europe “continue to be hindered by high energy costs and carbon taxes,” it said.
Challenging conditions
On Jan. 30, Ineos Quattro’s fourth-quarter trading statement said trading conditions remain “very challenging” in all regions amid sustained weak chemicals demand and pressured margins.
Ineos Quattro operates Ineos’ styrenics, chlor-vinyls, acetyls and aromatics businesses. It also implemented initiatives to review its asset portfolio and close plants where considered appropriate to “improve utilizations and reduce fixed costs,” it said in the trading statement.
Ineos Quattro’s unaudited EBITDA earnings plunged to €77 million in the fourth quarter, down from €155 million a year earlier. Full-year EBITDA of €717 million declined from €912 million in 2024. The Inovyn business segment reported EBITDA of €46 million, down from €102 million in the prior-year period, and full-year EBITDA of €212 million, down from €348 million.
Ineos said at the time that it remained “confident in its views of the recovery of the chemical cycle in the medium term” and that its available liquidity was “easily sufficient” to cover upcoming debt maturities in January 2027. It also said it had extended its trade receivables securitization programs for a further three years, to January 2029, for a total quantum of €790 million, and that it had also received “a commitment from its shareholders of €200 million of incremental equity funding.”
Ineos Quattro’s net debt was approximately €5.5 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025, with cash balances of €1.68 billion at the end of the fourth quarter. Net debt leverage was approximately 7.7× EBITDA at the end of December 2025, it said.
Article includes reporting by Mark Thomas and Ian Young
Source: chemweek.com
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