Two Bidders Believed Still in the Running for Kem One

Two bidders are believed to be still in the running to acquire insolvent PVC producer Kem One from its current owner, the Klesch group. Reports from France suggest that U.S. private equity company OpenGate Capital has the inside track and is already in talks with the PVC producer's current ethylene supplier Total about deliveries.

OpenGate, which has acknowledged that it plans to exit the former Arkema business as soon as feasible, is said to have pledged €70 million, including a €50 million loan, to get the company back on a secure footing.

French industrialist and former Rhône-Poulenc executive, Alain de Krassny, who currently owns Austrian chemical producer Donau Chemie, is said to be still in the race, while a bidding consortium of French trade unions under the leadership of Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) is not given much of a chance, and a second private equity firm, Sun European Partners may have dropped out of the bidding.

The latter two bidders had declared themselves not yet ready to present their turnaround proposals to a recent meeting of the Kem One Joint Consultative Committee, which includes employee representatives. The future owner of the PVC producer, which entered insolvency proceedings at the end of this year's first quarter, is expected to be announced at a hearing of the Commercial Court of Lyon on Dec. 12. Only the polymerization activities are up for grabs. The separately held downstream processing business will be retained by Klesch.