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Indorama Ventures buys Wellman Europe
BANGKOK (Sept. 21, 2:30 p.m. ET) -- Major global PET supplier Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd. will soon own Europe’s largest PET recycler.
Bangkok-based Indorama announced Sept. 21 that it has an agreement to buy Wellman International Ltd. from Aurelius AG, a Grünwald, Germany-based holding company.
Terms were not disclosed.
Aurelius bought the business from U.S.-based Wellman Inc. in July 2007. It has three production facilities in Europe that recycle more than 1.6 billion PET bottles annually.
The company has recycling plants in Spijk, the Netherlands, and Verdun, France, plus a headquarters and fiber production in Mullagh, Ireland.
In 2010, Wellman International posted sales of 124 million euros, according to Aurelius.
The acquisition, to be completed within this year, will help the company meet its customers’ sustainability, including demand for post-consumer PET.
Indorama said there is potential to use Wellman International’s recycling technology in Asia.
“The target acquisition has the know-how to blend recycled PET and industrial waste and will potentially contribute to make Indorama Ventures a ‘zero waste’ company with a low carbon footprint able to serve both the beverage and fiber segments of our customer base,” said Indorama CEO Aloke Lohia.
“The project will act as a springboard to launch [Indorama] into recycled PET following our ongoing construction of recycling plants in Decatur, Ala., and Rayong, Thailand,” Lohia said.
“As this is the largest recycling capacity in the whole of Europe we will have both economies of scale and lower production costs to serve our customers in both the bottle and fiber segments,” he said.