Akzo Nobel takes top spot

19 July 2004 01:00  [Source: ICB]

Van der Meer: the acquisition will facilitate consolidation

Akzo Nobel is taking the lead in European production of coil coatings by buying the French coil coatings business of German speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals business Altana.

Part of Altana’s French subsidiary Rhenacoat, the business has production facilities at Montataire, near Paris. It employs 60 people and had sales last year of €11.6m.

It is understood that Akzo Nobel paid less than €10m. A spokesman declined to reveal the capacity being acquired from Altana, but said it would enable Akzo Nobel to overtake Germany’s Beckers as Europe’s number one.

The disposal will leave Rhenacoat free to concentrate entirely on packaging coatings at Sedan, its remaining site in France.

Guido Forstbach, head of Altana’s coatings and sealants business, described the disposal as another logical step in the strategic withdrawal from the industrial coatings sector to concentrate on high potential niche markets such as chemical solutions for flexible packaging.

Rudy van der Meer, head of Akzo Nobel’s coatings business, said: ‘This is a strategically important acquisition because it will provide Akzo Nobel with a dedicated coil coatings manufacturing facility in France, Europe’s largest coil market.

‘It will also give us access to the French building products market and present an excellent opportunity to grow and strengthen our coil coatings operation in some key business sectors.’

Van der Meer said the deal would also facilitate the consolidation of the company’s entire French/Benelux coil operations at Akzo Nobel’s Montataire facility near Paris.

Akzo Nobel confirmed that the company’s coil coatings operations at Vilvoorde near Brussels in Belgium would be relocated to the Altana Montataire site, which is adjacent to an Akzo Nobel decorative coatings plant.

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