BY Richard Summerfield
DuPont has agreed to sell most of its mobility and materials unit, including its engineering polymers business line and select product lines within the performance resins and advanced solutions business lines, to Celanese Corporation for $11bn in cash.
The deal, which will see roughly 5000 employees and 29 manufacturing sites move to Celanese, is expected to close around the end of the year, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
The DuPont businesses, which the company earmarked for sale back in November, had total 2021 revenues of $3.5bn and profits before taxes of $800m. The purchase will be a major acquisition for Celanese, which earned $2.8bn before taxes on $8.5bn in revenues in 2021, and will more than double the its engineered materials unit, which had $2.7bn in turnover in 2021.
“The transaction with Celanese that we are announcing today will create a market-leading portfolio serving the automotive, consumer and industrial markets with unmatched scale, manufacturing capability and technical expertise,” said Ed Breen, executive chairman and chief executive of DuPont. “We are proud of the strength of these industry-leading businesses, which we believe will be even stronger when combined with the highly complementary portfolio of Celanese. We are excited for Celanese to partner with the team and we are confident that together they will continue to drive industry-defining material science innovation to serve customers and the value chain.”
“We are excited to welcome our future colleagues from DuPont who have built a world-class product and technology portfolio which is highly regarded in the industry,” said Lori Ryerkerk, chairman and chief executive of Celanese. “Our businesses are highly complementary which will accelerate our growth in high-value applications including future mobility, connectivity and medical.”
The acquisition is expected to complement existing Celanese product lines in polyacetal, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, liquid crystal polymers and polyphenylene sulfide. DuPont’s nylon and PBT polymer production will back integrate Celanese’s compounding operations in those businesses. The unit will also extend Celanese’s reach in Asia, helping the company recover some of the presence in the region it relinquished when it sold its stake in the Polyplastics engineering polymer joint venture with Japan’s Daicel. Celanese expects to achieve $450m worth of synergies by integrating DuPont’s polymer businesses with its own within the first four years of deal close.
DuPont plans to use the proceeds of the sale to pay for its pending $5.2bn purchase of the electronic materials producer Rogers Corp, and to finance further acquisitions and share buybacks.
News: DuPont to shed mobility and materials unit in $11 bln Celanese deal