Swiss takeover board sides with Saint-Gobain in battle for Sika

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saint-Gobain's attempted takeover of Switzerland's Sika took another twist as two investors said they will appeal a ruling stipulating that the French building materials company is not required to make an offer for all of Sika's shares, as per Reuters.

The French group agreed in December to buy from the Burkard-Schenker family a 16.1 percent stake that carries 52.4 percent of Sika's voting rights -- enough for control and, at 2.75 billion Swiss francs (USD2.86 billion), a far cheaper option than buying the whole company.

Sika's management and many shareholders have objected to the move, arguing that Saint-Gobain is abusing the company's bylaws and that the extra voting rights are not transferable. Switzerland's takeover board on Wednesday dismissed an objection from Sika investors Cascade Investment and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, ruling that an "opting out" clause was applicable to Saint-Gobain's offer.

The clause in the Swiss company's bylaws allows Saint-Gobain to avoid rules that would normally oblige it to make an offer for all of the shares. The two investors said on Thursday that they would lodge an appeal against the takeover board's decision with Swiss financial regulator FINMA.

Sika said last month that the two investors jointly held 3 percent of Sika's voting rights. Saint-Gobain had no immediate comment on the investors' plan to appeal. Shares in Sika opened 2.8 pct lower. At 0746 GMT the shares were down 1.2 percent.

Last month the takeover board declared the opt-out clause valid but declined to rule on whether it can be used to take control without a full bid. Another issue in the proposed takeover is a decision by the Sika board in January to reduce the Burkard-Schenker family's voting rights.

Sika's board argued that the company's articles of association state that a registered shareholder should not hold a stake larger than 5 percent. The Burkard-Schenkers and their SchenkerWinkler Holding (SWH) vehicle had been exempt from this rule because of the family's close association with the company over more than a century and because it had pledged to protect the business from takeovers.

SWH said at the time that it considered the move illegal. In March a Swiss court denied a request by SWH to lift the limitation of its voting rights.

As MRC informed before, Sika AG reported a 28% increase in annual profit as the Swiss construction and industrial chemical maker continues fending off a hostile takeover bid from France's Saint-Gobain SA.

Sika is a specialty chemicals company with a leading position in the development and production of systems and products for bonding, sealing, damping, reinforcing and protecting in the building sector and the motor vehicle industry. Sika has subsidiaries in 90 countries around the world and manufactures in over 160 factories. Its more than 16,000 employees generated annual sales of CHF 5.6 billion in 2014.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- INEOS welcomed a survey by UK polling firm Com Res showing 43% of UK citizens support hydraulic fracturing (fracking) versus 35% who oppose it, said the company in its press release.

In March a Com Res survey sponsored by Greenpeace asked 2,035 British adults about their views on fracking. INEOS today welcomes the results which clearly show that the UK public is increasingly supportive of Shale gas exploration in the UK.

INEOS Director, Tom Crotty, says: "We welcome the Com Res survey results. It clearly shows that more and more people are seeing the potentially huge benefits of UK produced Shale gas. UK Shale gas is a once in a lifetime opportunity that we cannot afford to miss. North Sea oil created great wealth for the UK and shale gas can do the same. It will help secure manufacturing, deliver investment and create thousands of jobs".

As MRC informed earlier, INEOS , operator of the Grangemouth petrochemical plant, started a community consultation process to try to win support for fracking in March 2015.

INEOS will continue with our community engagement programme, aiming to speak directly to as many people as possible about this important issue and dispel as many of the untruths and the myths about Shale gas production as possible.

Ineos Group Limited is a privately owned multinational chemicals company consisting of 15 standalone business units, headquartered in Rolle, Switzerland and with its registered office in Lyndhurst, United Kingdom. It is the fourth largest chemicals company in the world measured by revenues (after BASF, Dow Chemical and LyondellBasell) and the largest privately owned company in the United Kingdom.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indorama Ventures has completed acquisition of 100 per cent stake in Performance Fibers Asia (PF Asia), the company said in a filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, as per Fiber2fashion.

With reference to the disclosure made by Indorama Ventures (IVL) on 8 December 2014, regarding the acquisition of 100 per cent stake in PF Asia, the premium polyester tire cord fabric producer in Asia, IVL said it has completed all the closing formalities and has taken charge of the plants in China effective 1 April, 2015.

As MRC informed earlier, Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL) informed that its subsidiary Indorama Petrochem Limited, Thailand has signed a definitive share purchase agreement with Bangkok Cable Company, Limited, a major shareholder, to acquire 94.91 percent equity stake in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) polymers maker Bangkok Polyester Public Company Limited (BPC), Thailand.

PF Asia comprises six companies, namely Performance Fibers Holdings Finance, Inc. (US), Performance Fibers Asia Holdings, LLC (US), Performance Fibers Asia, LLC (US), Performance Fibers (Hong Kong) Limited (Hong Kong), Performance Fibers (Kaiping) Company Limited (China) and Performance Fibers (Kaiping) No.2 Company Limited (China). The last two companies represent manufacturing units.

Indorama Ventures is a leading producer in the polyester value chain in Thailand with strong global network and manufacturing across Asia, Europe and North America. Its products serve major players in diversified end use markets, including food, beverages, personal and home care, health care, automotives, textile, and industrial. The company’s main products are PTA, PET and polyester fibre, which are distributed across the world.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Despite the relatively small increase in the April price of ethylene, European producers has announced a major increase in prices of pipe grade high density polyethylene (HDPE). Some producers altogether refused to ship material to the CIS markets in April, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The April contract price of ethylene in Europe was agreed by EUR55/tonne higher than in March, which led to the same increase in the polyethylene (PE) production costs. However, European producers announced an increase of EUR130-170/tonne from March in export prices of pipe grade HDPE. Such a significant rise in prices was caused by strong demand and tight supply of material in the market, which was due to a number of force majeure shutdowns at some plants and a slump in imports.

The April price rise is the second major increase in export prices of pipe grade HDPE in Europe. European buyers of material had to accept price increases of EUR120-170/tonne in March.

Negotiations over April shipments of coloured PE100 were held in the range of EUR1,280-1,370/tonne FCA last week. Deals for coloured PE80 were negotiated in the range of EUR1,280-1,340/tonne FCA.

Many companies reported that some European producers refused to ship them pipe grade PE in April, citing the lack of available quantities.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Production at Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL) plant has come back onstream at full throttle, as per Plastemart.

With this, demand of downstream processing units is being met, that had been under pressure of higher priced raw materials, after HPL's shutdown in July last year.

HPL's closure had not only created a shortfall of polymer products - different grades of polypropylene and polyethylene - but also forced many processing units to cut production.

As MRC informed before, in mid-July 2014, the manufacturing plant of Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd was shut down after the naphtha cracker unit developed a technical snag. Earlier, the Haldia plant was running at 50% capacity for long due to working capital crunch.

Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd is a modern naphtha based petrochemical complex at Haldia, West Bengal, India. Haldia has played the role of a catalyst in emergence of more than 500 downstream processing industries in West Bengal with a capacity to process more than 3,50,000 TPA of polymers, among which are polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
MRC