UCB divests films business
€2.25 billion acquisition of UK biotech Celltech, has divested its
films business in a move that takes it another step closer to
becoming a biopharmaceutical pure-play.
The films business specialises in the production of cellulose and polypropylene films used in the packaging industry and operates as part of UCB's Surface Specialties division. The company is planning to sell off its chemical businesses in order to finance the puchase of Celltech.
UCB has agreed to sell the films division for €320 million to a consortium led by Dennis Matthewman, the former managing director of Hays Chemical Distribution, and Candover, a UK-based buy-out specialist. The move lends further weight to suggestions that private equity firms still retain an appetite for European chemical players, despite the downturn in the industry.
The Belgian company had been expected to try to sell all its chemicals businesses en masse after rebundling them under the surface specialties banner earlier this year, with analysts suggesting that the business might fetch around €1 billion in total. UCB is now expected to try to sell off the remaining businesses, which include additives, adhesives and coatings, by the end of 2004.
The films business generated a turnover last year of €362 million, and has production facilities in the UK (Wigton and Bridgwater), in the US (Tecumseh), in Australia (Melbourne) and in Belgium (Merelbeke), with commercial operations worldwide. It employs 1,600 people.
