BASF has announced plans to sell its liquid masterbatch activities to Audia International. The world's largest chemical producer said the niche business based at Clermont de l'Oise, France, is not strategic to its focus.

The sale, for an undisclosed sum, is expected to close in mid-2014. In future, BASF said it intends to concentrate on its solid and powder masterbatch portfolio, which is headquartered at Cologne, Germany.

The U.S.-based buyer, a privately owned holding for companies active in the polyolefins and colour masterbatch sector, described the acquired portfolio as "very strategic." It will manage the former BASF business through its subsidiary Uniform Color Company, based at Holland, Michigan, in the U.S.

Other U.S. companies belonging to Audia include Washington Penn Plastic of Washington, Pennsylvania and Southern Polymer at Atlanta, Georgia. Altogether, it operates 10 production sites employing 1,000 people in North America and Europe and supplies the automotive, appliance, construction, packaging and consumer sectors.

Neither BASF nor Audia is among the top players in colour masterbatches. Market leaders include A. Schulman, Ampacet and PolyOne of the U.S. and Switzerland's Clariant. U.S-based Cabot is a major player in black masterbatches used in the tire industry.