Lanxess-Advent Plastics JV Launched as Envalior
Under the name Envalior, German specialty chemicals producer Lanxess and private equity investor Advent International launched their new 40:60 joint venture for high performance engineering plastics at the beginning of the second quarter, after the deal cleared all regulatory hurdles earlier.
The new player based near Düsseldorf, Germany, and headed by former Ineos manager Calum MacLean as CEO, has annual sales of close to €4 billion and 4,000 employees
According to the founders, Envalior combines the words engaging, enterprising, engineering and environment with the terms value-driven und value-creating.
The newly created company joins the ranks of other now established standalone chemicals, plastics and pharma players that originally were part of larger conglomerates, such as Clariant, Evonik, Novartis, Syngenta, Symrise, Venator, Covestro or Lanxess itself.
The Lanxess High Performance Materials portfolio, which is focused on polyamide (PA) and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) and also incorporates a glass fibre compounding unit, was once part of Bayer as was Covestro’s polycarbonate (PC) and polyurethanes (PU) slate. Envalior also consolidates the DSM engineering plastics businesses, which along with PA specialties produces polyester and polyphenylene sulphide (PPS).
Operations are grouped into three global divisions: Performance Materials, Specialty Materials, and Intermediates.
As part of the deal, Lanxess received a payment of around 1.3 billion from Advent on March 31 and said it plans to use this mainly to reduce debt and strengthen its balance sheet.
As financial support for the joint venture, the German chemical producer will provide a loan of €200 million. Three years from now, it will have the option to sell its stake back to its partner.
Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist
