“We plan to use this opportunity to monetize a historically passive investment and allocate significant capital to higher growth businesses within Celanese,” said Lori Ryerkerk, Celanese’s chairman and CEO, adding that because it had limited minority rights, Celanese did not have much ability to influence business decisions.

“We will continue to invest in product expansion to serve the growing demand in applications such as 5G, advanced mobility, medical/pharma and sustainable materials. Celanese also plans to expand its manufacturing capacity and advance its T&I capabilities in Asia to meet rapidly growing demand in the region,” added Tom Kelly, Celanese senior vice president for engineering materials.

The US-based company said it will continue to compete with Polyplastics in markets and regions where there are overlapping product lines.

Part of the sale proceeds may also go toward an increased share buy-back program. Celanese’s board of directors has approved a $500 million increase in the scheme, representing approximately 5% of the company’s outstanding shares.  The approval brings the total share repurchase authorization to $1.563 billion, or approximately 15% of the shares outstanding. The remainder of the proceeds could be spent on internal projects and acquisitions.

Daicel said making Polyplastics a wholly-owned subsidiary will allow it to accelerate the restructuring of its plastics segment, which accounts for 40% of its revenues.

Polyplastics makes engineering plastics, such as liquid crystal polymers (LCP), polyphenylene sulphide (PPS) and polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymer, also known as polyacetal. It regards itself as the leading global producer of POM and LCP, and the world’s fifth and fourth largest producer of polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) and PPS, respectively.