The transaction, for which no financial details have been disclosed, is expected to be wrapped up by early 2023, following approval by the relevant Evonik committees. Some 240 employee working for the business that belongs to the Essen-based company’s Specialty Additives division will transfer to the new owner.

Evonik said the divestment represents the next step in focusing its portfolio on specialty chemicals. For SABO, which is based at Levate in Bergamo province, it will mean strengthening its backward integration in the light stabilizer market and, through the acquisition of the Chinese site, deepening its global footprint.

The Italian company, which is regarded as one of the world's leading manufacturers of light stabilizers, uses TAA derivatives as a raw material to produce the additives that are used in low concentrations to protect and stabilize polymers against decomposition by light, oxygen and heat.

“We want to continue our profitable growth in specialty chemicals,” said Evonik CEO Christian Kullmann. “That includes divesting businesses that do not longer fit our strategic focus. We are thus concentrating our investment resources and at the same time enabling these businesses to better develop the future under new ownership.”

In May, the chemical company said that to accelerate its downstream diversification drive, it was looking to find a partner for and eventually divest its C4 portfolio, based largely at the Marl site.

The chemical businesses grouped together in the Performance Materials division include acrylic acid, butadiene, isobutene, MTB, oxo alcohols and plasticizers, biodiesel, potassium derivatives and intermediates for pharma, cosmetics and surfactants, along with co-monomers for synthetic rubber.

Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist