Honam Petrochemical to pay US$1.25 bln in cash to acquire Titan Chemicals

25-Aug-10

South Korea’s Honam Petrochemical will pay about US$1.25 bln in cash to acquire Titan Chemicals Corporation, as per Plasteurope. Following an initial takeover of 72.6% of the shares held by Titan head and the state-run Permoladan Nasional, Honam plans to squeeze out the remaining shareholders. The takeover propels Honam, the petrochemical division of Korea’s Lotte Group into the league of leading Asian ethylene manufacturers. The company’s C2 capacity, currently at 1.75 mln tpa will rise to about 2.5 mln tpa as a result, while revenues are expected to increase to EUR 8 bln. Titan is considered to be Malaysia’s largest olefin and polyolefin manufacturer. Since its 2006 takeover of Indonesian polyethylene producer PT Petrokimia Nusantara (PT Peni, Jakarta), the Malay company is widely believed to be South East Asia’s second-largest polyolefin manufacturer. Titan operates 10 plants at its Malay production sites in Pasir Gudang and Tanjung Langsat, as well as in Indonesia. Company sales last amounted to US$ 1.64 bln. All in all, Titan has capacities for 1 mln tpa of PE, 480,000 tpa of PP, 100,000 tpa of butadiene and 38,000 tpa of BOPP film.