Germany's specialty chemical maker Evonik has put its carbon black unit up for sale and plans to use the proceeds to expand its core specialty chemicals business. Evonik said it has hired an unnamed investment bank to manage the sale of the unit, which has annual revenue of about €1 billion ($1.3 billion) and whose products go into tyres and coatings.

Evonik's carbon black business competes with units of Cabot of the U.S. and India's Aditya Birla Nuvo and RPG Group, among others. Carbon blacks were originally derived from soot and are used to make tyres more durable and also go into laser printer toners.

Evonik, majority owned by a government-controlled trust that bears the long-term liabilities of Germany's wound-down coal mining industry, is also trying to sell its power plant business and has plans to hive off its real estate operations to focus on specialty chemicals. Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners bought a 25% stake in Evonik in 2008 after a share sale and a listing on the Frankfurt stock exchange failed several times.