MOSCOW (MRC) -- Solvay has signed a definitive agreement to sell its 58.77%t stake in its Thai subsidiary Vinythai PCL to Japanese company AGC Asahi Glass (AGC), thereby exiting its Asian polyvinyl chloride (PVC) activities, said the producer on its site.
The transaction is based on a total enterprise value of 16.5 billion Thai Baht (EUR435 million), representing a multiple of 8x mid-cycle EBITDA. Completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including antitrust approvals, and is expected in the first half of 2017.
"This agreement follows Solvay’s earlier sale of the European PVC business and the upcoming completion of the divestment of its Brazilian PVC activities. These transactions represent a significant milestone in the Group’s transformation towards a multi-specialty chemical group," said Vincent De Cuyper, member of Solvay’s Executive Committee.
As MRC informed before, in mid-Decmeber 2016, Solvay obtained clearance from the Brazilian antitrust authority, CADE, for the agreed sale of its 70.59% stake in Solvay Indupa to chemical group Unipar Carbocloro. Completion of the transaction, at a total enterprise value of USD 202.2 million as announced in May, is expected to take place in the next weeks. Solvay Indupa produces PVC and caustic soda in Brazil and Argentina.
Earlier, in 2014, Argentina's stock regulator rejected as inadequate an offer from Brazil's Braskem, Latin America's largest petrochemical company, to buy the roughly 30% of the shares of plastic maker Solvay Indupa that are publicly traded. Solvay Indupa is the Argentine-Brazilian unit of Belgium's Solvay, which owns 70.59% of the company.
Created in 1948, PVC and caustic soda producer Solvay Indupa has 956 employees and two production sites in Brazil and Argentina. Indupa, with a manufacturing capacity of more than 500,000 tpa of PVC, runs facilities at Santo Andre, Brazil, and Bahia Blanca, Argentina.
Solvay, with a market share 27%, is the second largest PVC manufacturer in Europe, after Kerling with 29% of the market. Solvay is headquartered in Brussels with about 30,900 employees spread across 53 countries. It generated pro forma net sales of EUR12.4 bn in 2015, with 90% made from activities where it ranks among the world’s top 3 players.
MRC