Spain's La Seda de Barcelona to sell assets

30-Sep-13

La Seda de Barcelona, the insolvent Spanish polyethylene terephthalate producer and converter, wants to sell three production units, as per company sources in Platts. The company has applied to the commercial court in Barcelona for consent to sell its 170,000 mt/year Artenius Espana PET operation at El Prat de Llobregat and the chemicals plant of Industrias Quimicas Asociadas LSB (IQA) in Tarragona. The latter has capability to produce 130,000 mt/year ethylene oxide and 95,000 mt/year of glycols, including monoethylene glycol, diethylene glycol and polyethylene glycols, and is marketed as the only producer of EO in Spain. LSB has simultaneously applied to the court to initiate a sale process of its shares in the Turkish company Artenius Turkpet, A.S. in Adana, which runs a PET plant with a 130,000 mt/year capacity. he sale process will be oriented towards maximizing the final sale prices and maintaining jobs, the company said in a statement. LSB declared voluntary insolvency in June. It was unable to reach a repayment agreement on syndicated debt of Eur235 mln (US$317 mln) of a total of upwards of Eur600 million. The company was granted a standstill on repayment of the debt at the end of March this year, and the standstill was extended most recently at the end of May to the end of June. At the beginning of April, LSB said it was continuing negotiations to try to reach an agreement on its debt restructuring after BA PET II BV and its shareholders canceled their commitment to a capital increase for the company. BA PET II BV, an entity linked to Dutch company and major La Seda shareholder BA PET BV, was expected to subscribe to and pay for any increase in La Seda's capital as part of the refinancing of the company's debt, as it could not arrange a suitable syndicated loan, but this plan was not implemented. In May La Seda announced that Artenius, the PET and recycling division of the group, will permanently close its 80,000 mt/year PET plant in Volos, Greece, as a result of profitability loss due to the site's limited production capacity and the fall in local demand.