EU clears sale of DSM Special Products to equity firm Sun Capital

02 December 2010 19:11  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS)--The European Commission has approved the planned sale by Dutch chemicals major DSM of its DSM Special Products (DSP) to US private equity firm Sun Capital, the Commission said on Thursday.

An earlier attempt by DSM to sell DSP to US private equity firm Arsenal had failed last year.

The Commission said DSP was a producer of benzaldehyde, benzoic acid, benzyl alcohol, and sodium benzoate. Included in the deal was DSM IP Assets (DSM IP), the owner of certain intellectual property rights, it added.

Meanwhile, Sun’s portfolio included Emerald Kalama Chemicals, a US-based producer of benzoic acid, sodium benzoate, benzyl alcohol and benzaldehyde, it said.

The planned deal would result in some horizontal product overlaps on markets for benzoic acid, sodium benzoate, benzaldehyde and benzyl alcohol, as well as vertical effects on upstream and downstream markets, the Commission said.

However, these effects were “not significant” and posed no competition concerns, the Commission said.

Last year, DSM halted an attempt to sell DSP to US private equity firm Arsenal, saying that conditions imposed by the Commission had made that deal no longer feasible.

The DSP divestment is part of DSM's Vision 2010 strategy, announced in 2005, to focus on innovative and high-growth areas such as biomedical materials, specialty packaging, personalised nutrition and white (or industrial) biotechnology and on fast growing parts of the world such as China.

According to information on DSM's website, DSP employs a staff of around 130 at Dutch sites in Rotterdam and Sittard.

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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