Sekisui Chemical to Buy Celanese's PVA Business for Us$173 Mln

Sekisui Chemical Co. (TSE:4204) on Monday announced that it will acquire the high-performance polyvinyl alcohol resin business of U.S. chemical firm Celanese Corp. for US$173 million, or about 16.8 billion yen.

PVA is the raw material used in manufacturing the interlayer films that add sound-proofing and heat-insulating properties to laminated auto glass. Sekisui Chemical is the world's largest maker of these auto glass films with a 42 per cent share of the global market.

Celanese has two manufacturing bases in the U.S. and one in Spain for a combined production capacity of 120,000 tons of PVA resin. Sekisui Chemical will establish new companies in the U.S. and Spain and inherit this business by June.

Sekisui Chemical also announced Monday a five-year business plan to fiscal 2013. To nurture growth in seven business fields, including automotive materials, the company intends to spend 120 billion yen on mergers and acquisitions and other strategic investments during the period.