The Smart Money Makes Bets on Engineering Nylon

The nylon business may be weak right now, but the smart money says it has a bright future. Last week, I reported from the National Plastics Exposition that Invista, a major chemical producer, is entering the engineering nylon business. Now, there’s another new name in the business- Ascend Performance Materials. That’s what the nylon business formerly owned by St. Louis-based Solutia will be called. SK Capital Partners of New York recently completed the purchase of the nylon assets from Solutia. The business lost money on $1.8 billion in sales last year. Frederic Poses, former CEO of American Standard and COO of AlliedSignal, will head the new company. Timothy Strehl continues as president. “We are attracted by the growth opportunities that exist within Ascend’s businesses, which have solid fundamentals, a strong customer base and talented people. Ascend, as an independent private company, will be focused on leveraging our leading technology to develop new and innovative products for our global customer base,” said Poses in an announcement.

Ascend overnight becomes the second largest nylon producer in North America. DuPont is first. The deal included plants in Alvin, TX; Decatur, AL; Greenwood, SC; Pensacola, FL; and Foley, AL.