As it prepares to divest its plastics business and refocus on refining and oil exploration, Italian oil and petrochemicals giant Eni has reported assets and liabilities, revenues, expenses and cash flow of subsidiary Versalis as “discontinued operations” in its 2015 earnings statement published on Feb. 26.

In the statement, Eni said negotiations are underway with an industrial partner who, by acquiring a controlling stake of Milan-based Versalis, would support Eni in implementing the industrial plan designed to upgrade this business.

The oil giant has promised the national government in Rome it will find a buyer willing to commit to keeping the company alive in its current form for at least five years while maintaining current employment levels for at least three years and retaining the company’s Italian headquarters.

Versalis, legacy of a long list of partly state-owned firms linked with Eni and changing partners, currently employs 4,000 people. It also has four research centers and owns 250 patents, the labor-leaning newspaper Il Diario del Lavoro noted in an opinion piece casting doubt on SK Capital Partners’ suitability as a new owner. The newspaper suggested also that the US private equity company might be investing abroad to save tax.

The plans to reinvent Versalis recall as yet largely unsuccessful government efforts to keep Italy’s plastics industry alive after a series of failed efforts spanning more than a decade. Most notable was the protracted but fruitless search for a buyer for the PVC producer last known as Vinyls Italia, after both Eni and Ineos successively pulled out.

Eni did not identify the potential investor in Versalis, who reports said could acquire 70% of the company. Italian media took it for granted that the buyer is New York-based private equity group SK Capital Partners, even though per definition the private equity company has no industrial base.

In late January, SK’s founder and managing director, Barry Siadat, confirmed an interest in acquiring a controlling stake in the plastics manufacturer. Siadat said his firm intended to continue operating Versalis as an Italian company under its existing management and insisted there were no plans to shutter any production facilities or lay off any staff.

Unease in the Versalis workforce has been manifest at least since autumn 2015, even before news of Eni’s divestment plans was confirmed by CEO Claudio Descalzi at a meeting with Italian government officials and the trade unions in Decemer. Up to now, strikes by the unions and roundtable discussions with the Ministry for Economic Development have brought no visible results.

The Italian unions have questioned the logic behind Eni’s strategy to divest the plastics business and concentrate on exploration and refining in a time of falling oil prices – especially as Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, who has headed the company since 2014, acknowledged in the current earnings statement that Versalis had returned to profit after a long stretch of mounting losses. Later this month, Eni is due to present full results for 2015 as well as a preview of its forward strategy

Descalzi attributed the turnaround in major part to a transformation plan for the plastics subsidiary launched in 2013, which focuses on international development through strategic partnerships with global players and on “green” chemistry. He said the company’s future partner must have the expertise to allow it to “either broaden or exchange” its technology portfolio, so as to generate new development and investment opportunities.

In its move away from petrochemicals, Versalis since 2013 has enjoyed a successful cooperation with California-based Genomatica, a leading developer of process technology for renewable chemicals. The companies recently began pilot-scale production of bio-butadiene as part of a joint venture in which Versalis holds an undisclosed majority stake.