Sale of three US divisions will increase PolyOne's European presence

Sale of three US divisions will increase PolyOne's European presence

PolyOne has put a quarter of its global business up for sale in an attempt to reduce debt. The US-based company said yesterday it wanted to sell three of its business areas.

The three divisions for sale are elastomers and performance additives, engineered films and speciality resins. Last year the operations had combined sales of $617m (E528m) of the company’s overall $2.5bn (E2.1bn).

PolyOne said last year it wanted to reduce debt from $500m (E430m) to $300m (E257m). PRW.com reported in January that the company planned to cut 400 jobs globally to make savings of up to $35m (E30m) a year.

PolyOne said after the sale it would focus on its plastics compounding, colour additive masterbatch and distribution businesses. A company spokesman said the move would strengthen its European presence, as the areas for sale were all based in the US.

PolyOne has three UK manufacturing sites for its formulators business and one in compounds and colours.

A spokesman said: “We are very pleased with our European and Asian businesses and this will raise our operations there from 15% to 18%.

“Our European businesses have a lot of linkages with the US and Asia; there is synergy especially with the US in terms of technology.”

PRW.com reported in June that the company had sold its European Easy Flow PVC compounding business to Hydro Polymers. The Newton Aycliffe business produced 3,000tpa and had a turnover of about Ј3m (E4.3m).