Alpek S.A.B. de C.V. (San Pedro Garza Garcia, Mexico; www.alpek.com) and BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) have announced that they have signed agreements concerning the EPS (expandable polystyrene) and PU (polyurethane) business activities of their Polioles joint venture in Mexico, and BASF’s EPS business in North and South America, excluding BASF’s Neopor (grey EPS) business.
Alpek will acquire all of Polioles’ EPS business activities, including its EPS production site in Altamira, Mexico. In parallel, BASF will acquire Polioles’ PU business activities, including selected assets in its Lerma facility as well as all marketing and selling rights for PU systems, isocyanates and polyols. Upon completion of the transaction, Polioles will continue operations as an Alpek-BASF joint venture with a product portfolio comprised of industrial and specialty chemicals. Under the agreements, Alpek will also acquire BASF’s EPS business activities in North and South America, including: BASF’s EPS sales and distribution channels in North and South America,BASF’s EPS production facilities in Guaratinguetá, Brazil, and General Lagos, Argentina, and BASF’s EPS foam parts business in Chile (Aislapol, S.A.). The combined capacity of all EPS production facilities that Alpek will acquire is approximately 230,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr). This figure includes Polioles’ 165,000 m.t./yr production plant in Altamira, Mexico.
BASF will continue to sell Neopor to its customers in the U.S., Canada and South America. In Mexico, Alpek will sell Neopor for BASF based on a distribution agreement. All agreements are subject to approval by the appropriate authorities. Closing of the transaction is expected by early 2015. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.