Covestro Sells PC Sheets to Serafin
Materials manufacturer Covestro has agreed to sell its European polycarbonate sheets business to Germay’s Serafin Group for an undisclosed sum. The move completes Covestro’s divestment of all of its PC sheets businesses, having sold its assets in North America and India last year and converted production in Guangzhou, China, to specialty films.
Covestro said the sheets business no longer fits with its longer-term strategy for the PC business, which will continue to focus on differentiated applications.
The transaction, which remains subject to antitrust approval, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Serafin will gain manufacturing sites in Belgium and Italy along with central management operations and sales support in Europe. The Munich-based company aims to strengthen the business as a “mid-sized company with high flexibility and a strong customer orientation”.
Covestro’s European PC sheets business generates revenues of about €130 million (2018) and employs 250 people, who will be maintained at all sites after the takeover. Covestro will continue to serve as the key raw materials supplier for the foreseeable future.
North American acrylic sheet producer Plaskolite bought Covestro’s US PC sheets business in August 2018. This business, which had sales of around $170 million in 2017, was purchased for a price in the “high-double-digit million dollars”. No details were available on the purchaser of Covestro’s India business.
