Privately owned Belgian chemicals distributor and plastics compounder Ravago has finalized its acquisition of DowDuPont’s European insulation material business for an undisclosed sum.

The company submitted the plans to Belgian antitrust authorities in July 2018, and the deal was approved in December.

Specifically, the transaction encompasses seven production facilities for expandable polystyrene (XPS) sold by Dow and distributed by Ravago up to now under the universally known brand name Styrofoam.

With the purchase, Ravago gains one production facility each at Drusenheim, France; Lavrion, Greece; Norrköping, Sweden; Dilovasi,  Turkey, and King's Lynn, England as well as two plants in Germany, located at Rheinmünster in the southwest and Schkopau in the east.

Ravago, which has annual sales of around €7.5 billion and more than 6,000 employees, has had a long relationship with Dow Chemical.  It not only has distributed Dow’s XPS portfolio in Europe; in 2013, its subsidiary RP Compounds based at Schkopau took over the 70,000 t/y EPS plant at the east German complex from a Dow spin-off.

Throughout Europe, the Belgian company additionally operates 11 manufacturing facilities for building and construction products including XPS insulation materials, roofing sheet and films.