Kerling Completes acquisition of Tessenderlo’s European Chlor-Vinyls Business

Kerling Plc has today completed its acquisition of Tessenderlo Group’s European chlor-vinyls business for a consideration of €110 million cash.

Through the transaction Kerling has now acquired all of Tessenderlo Group’s PVC activities as well as the VCM, caustic soda, caustic potash and parts of its OCD (Organic Chlorine Derivatives) businesses including:

*the chlor-alkali, vinyls and OCD assets at the site in Tessenderlo Belgium.
*the site in Maastricht (The Netherlands) with a benzyl alcohol plant
*the sites in Beek (The Netherlands) and Mazingarbe (France) with PVC plants
*approximately 850 employees.

The newly acquired business will be integrated into and managed by INEOS ChlorVinyls, the largest operating Company within Kerling Plc.

Comments Chris Tane, CEO Kerling: "We are delighted to have completed this acquisition, which is a significant step forward for the development of our Company.

“The new businesses consists of high quality assets, strategically located in complementary markets to Kerling’s existing businesses and will provide a platform for further profitable growth.”


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Kerling is one of the major chlor-alkali producers in Europe, a global leader in chlorine derivatives and Europe’s largest PVC manufacturer. The Company also has leading UK market positions in sulphur chemicals and salt, along with significant activities in brine, biodiesel and chlorinated paraffins.

In January 2010 INEOS brought together its key polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and chlor-alkali businesses under a single new financing structure to be known as the Kerling Group. The businesses in Kerling Group which had effectively been operating together since 2008, now trade as INEOS ChlorVinyls business (“INEOS ChlorVinyls”) a European market leader in PVC and chlor-alkali.

Tessenderlo Group is an international chemicals company with over 100 locations worldwide. More than 7,200 people work for the group. The group is a world and European leader in most of its product areas with a consolidated revenue totalling €2.4 billion in 2010. Tessenderlo Chemie NV is listed on Eurolist by Euronext Brussels and is part of the Next 150 and BEL Mid indices. Financial News wires: Bloomberg: TESB BB – Reuters: TesBt.BR – Datastream: B:Tes