Italian M&G Group has acquired engineering company

Italian PET resin and packaging firm M&G Group has acquired engineering company Chemtex International from Mitsubishi Corporation for an undisclosed amount.

Chemtex carries out engineering, procurement and construction management work, largely in the field of polyester fibres, but also PET polymer and other petrochemicals. It was responsible for building the world’s largest PET plant for M&G at Altamira in Mexico, where capacity is 1,200 tonnes per day.

Vice-president of corporate operations and development at M&G, Guido Ghisolfi, said: “I am very pleased with this acquisition, which has the potential to create great value and synergies for M&G Polymers business unit and Chemtex merchant engineering activity.”

Chemtex is based in the USA, but also has operations in India and China. In 2003, it had revenues of $160m (E119m) and employed 750 people.

The company has worked closely with DuPont’s fibres business, now Invista, and the Altamira plant uses technology licensed from Invista. Chemtex is now building a PET resin plant in China that will use Invista’s NG3 technology.