Johnson Matthey says ICI's Synetix could be a 'good fit'

06 June 2002 12:04  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)--UK chemicals and precious metals company Johnson Matthey said Thursday the Synetix catalyst unit of compatriot ICI could be a good fit for its catalyst business.

Finance director John Sheldrick said Johnson Matthey is interested in growing its catalysts business and is looking at acquisitions, a spokesman confirmed to CNI.

ICI put its non-core Synetix business up for sale earlier this year. The business has some 800 employees worldwide, of which 400 are located at the headquarters in Billingham, northeast England. Last year, Synetix had sales of £143m ($209m/Euro224m), trading profits of £24m and at 31 December 2001 had net operating assets of £101m.

Sheldrick was speaking following the publication of Johnson Matthey's 2001-02 results, which showed a 4% rise in pre-tax profits before exceptional items to £187.2m despite sales falling 18% to £4.83bn.

Johnson Matthey also said it will introduce the Aquacat technology for catalyst recovery sometime between September and March next year. This new technology, which was developed in collaboration with Sweden's Chematur, will use a patented processing technique.

By: Russell Ong
+44 208 652 3214

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