The French-owned group has revealed plans to divest parts of the Atofina chemical division

The French-owned group has revealed plans to divest parts of the Atofina chemical division

French-owned Total group has set a three-year time frame to divest portions of its Atofina chemical division. The company today revealed more details of the proposed restructuring and eventual sale of parts of its chemicals business. Atofina vice-president of corporate strategy acquisitions Bernard Boyer said: “Our first task is to improve the results of the division.”

Once this has been achieved, the division will be divested either as a spin off or through an initial public offering. The spin-off company currently dubbed CIP (chlorochemical, intermediates and performance products) will include Atofina’s PVC, PMMA and engineering plastic businesses.

Other plastics assets, notably polyolefins and PS, will remain within Total’s new petrochemicals divisions.