Sabic has agreed to sell its European petrochemical assets, and engineering plastics assets in Europe and the Americas, to two German buyers for a total enterprise value of $950 million, the company said in a statement Jan. 8.
Sabic will sell the European petchem business to private equity firm Aequita SE & Co. KGaA for an enterprise value of $500 million and the European and Americas engineering plastics business to holding company Mutares SE & Co. KGaA for an enterprise value of $450 million, it said in the statement. The two buyers are based in Munich.
The European petchem segment produces and markets various products: ethylene, propylene, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP) and value-added polymer compounds, and manages a number of manufacturing sites, including at Teesside, UK; Geleen, Netherlands; Gelsenkirchen, Germany; and Genk, Belgium, Sabic said in the statement.
Sabic said the sale is a continuation of its plans to improve returns and focus on high-margin markets and products.
For Aequita, the deal represents a further step in the expansion of its European chemicals platform.
”The assets are highly synergistic with the olefins and polyolefins business we recently acquired from LYB [LyondellBasell],” said Axel Geuer, president and co-CEO of Aequita, in a statement.
LyondellBasell NV in June 2025 agreed to sell four European olefin and polymer assets to Aequita.
Sabic’s European petchem assets to be divested include a naphtha cracker at Geleen. The polyolefin assets to be sold are at Geleen, Gelsenkirchen and Teesside, and the PP compounding unit is at Genk. The deal also includes butadiene, benzene and methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) units at Geleen. The sale to Aequita is expected to close by the end of 2026.
Sabic obtained the Geleen complex as part of the acquisition of the former DSM’s petchem business in 2002 for about $2 billion.
Sabic said the sale to Mutares is expected to close by the third quarter.
Engineering plastics assets in the sale include multiple polycarbonate, polybutylene terephthalate and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene plants, it said. These assets are located across Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain and the US.
Sabic acquired most of its engineering plastics business from the former GE Plastics in 2007 for $11.6 billion.
The planned asset sales to Aequita and Mutares “reposition Sabic for longer-term success by refocusing financial resources and management attention towards growth areas where the company has clear competitive advantages,” Sabic said in its statement. “The divestments are expected to enhance Sabic’s performance, including through increasing overall EBITDA margins, improving free cash flow generation, and supporting higher return on capital employed, enabling the company to optimize capital and align its profitability aspirations with a value-accretive portfolio,” Sabic said.
Sabic will also continue to supply the European and US markets from other locations once the divestments are completed. “Importantly, both transactions will allow Sabic to maintain strategic access for its products through exports to both Europe and the Americas, which remain priority markets for the company,” Sabic said.
Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, assessed the European ethylene spot price at €518.50 per metric ton free-delivered northwest Europe on Jan. 7, down €1 per metric ton since the end of December.
Story by Mujidah Yahaya, Platts; additional reporting by Ian Young
Source: chemweek.com
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