Indorama, Alpek win bid for CarbonLite’s US recycling plants

HOUSTON (ICIS)–CarbonLite announced Indorama Ventures and the Alpek subsidiary DAK Americas as successful bidders for its two recycling plants in Dallas, Texas and Reading, Pennsylvania as part of its bankruptcy case, the company said in court documents.

On 24 May CarbonLite had two separate virtual actions for the Dallas and Reading plant. In the Dallas auction, three bidders participated with Indorama securing the highest bid at $63.8m. And in the Reading auction, stalking horse bidder DAK Americas won the best bid at $98.1m in an auction of two bidders.

For both facilities, TSG Shelf II Acquisition was chosen as the backup bidder should bids from the other two companies fall through. TSG Shelf, which is part of Houston-based private equity firm The Sterling Group, has been chosen as the winning bid for CarbonLite’s Riverside plant in California.

The Riverside facility was auctioned off on 21 May for $57.5m.

The Dallas facility has a capacity of 85m lb/year (39m kg/year) of R-PET pellets. It began operations in late 2017.

The Reading plant, which had completed construction in August 2020, can process 85m lb/year (39m kg/year) of R-PET pellets.

Thailand-based Indorama bills itself as one of the world’s largest virgin polyethylene terephthalate (PET) producers. Indorama has been seeking to expand its R-PET offerings to customers by buying recycling facilities as brands seek to increase recycled content in its packaging.

Mexican-based Alpek PET producer and its subsidiary DAK Americas has engaged in a similar strategy to meet R-PET objectives.

A hearing to approve the sale will take place 3 June for all three assets, including the Dallas and Reading plants.

CarbonLite describes its firm as one of the largest producers of food-grade R-PET pellets in the US. The company also owns subsidiary PinnPack Packaging, a food-grade packaging producer.

In March, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the US Bankruptcy Court, Delaware District, citing pressures stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, among other factors. The case number is 21-10527.