BASF completes $91m buy of Sunoco plasticiser assets

22 January 2004 17:55  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (CNI)--BASF completed its purchase of Sunoco's phthalate plasticiser business Thursday, paying $91m (Euro72m) for assets, intellectual property and customer lists.

The deal includes the transfer of Sunoco's plant in Pasadena, Texas. A spokesman for BASF's US office in Mount Olive, New Jersey told CNI the company will take over the operations there and its employees will join BASF.

In its announcement, BASF said the deal does not include Sunoco's site in Neville Island, Pennsylvania, which will manufacture plasticisers for BASF under a tolling agreement. BASF also has a Canadian plasticiser manufacturing site in Cornwall, Ontario as well as a manufacturing and marketing agreement with Sterling Chemical in Texas City, Texas.

BASF said the business acquired from Sunoco recorded $150m worth of sales in 2002.

Sunoco's Pasadena site includes land with plants for the manufacture of phthalic anhydride (PA) and oxo alcohol.

BASF said the transaction includes purchase of Sunoco's phthalate esters, 2-ethylhexanol and phthalic anhydride businesses.

The company said the deal is structured as a purchase of assets.

In announcing completion of the previously announced deal, BASF's group vice president for petrochemicals in North America, Cenan Ozmeral, said the transaction should underscore his company's commitment to plasticisers in the region.

By: Gary Taylor
+1 713 525 2653

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