Dramatic restructuring of the American plastics industry continues. The Dow Chemical Co., a venerable name in American chemicals, is selling its styrenics and polycarbonate businesses to Bain Capital Partners, a Boston-based private investment firm. The price tag for the Styron Division is $1.63 billion, and as part of the transaction, Dow has an option to receive up to 15 percent of the equity of Styron.
Styron is expected to have approximately $3.5 billion in revenue (based on 2009 data), with 40-plus manufacturing plants and approximately 1,900 employees.
Businesses and products in Styron include: Styrenics - Polystyrene (PS), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), styrene acrylonitrile (SAN) and expandable polystyrene (EPS); Emulsion Polymers (paper and carpet latex); Polycarbonate (PC) compounds & blends; Synthetic Rubber; and Automotive Plastics including PULSETM engineering resins, MAGNUMTM acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, INSPiRETM performance polymers, and VELVEXTM reinforced elastomer. Also included will be some styrene monomer assets.
Dow has been restructuring since 2006 in a bid to move away from volatile commodity markets into high-value specialties. An earlier bid to divest polycarbonate fell apart.
One of the biggest moves in American plastics restructuring came in 2007 when SABIC acquired General Electric’s Plastics division, in an $11.6 billion cash deal, including $8.7 billion of liabilities. The unit was renamed SABIC Innovative Plastics and now has more than 9,500 employees worldwide. GE made the move in an effort to focus on higher-growth businesses with more predictable earnings results.
Tweet This
12 
