Chemical company AkzoNobel has announced that they will be selling their specialty chemicals division for 10 billion euros, including debt. The division includes AkzoNobel’s operations at the Chemical Park in Delfzijl in the province of Groningen.
It is unclear what the sale to The Carlyle Group and Singapore-based investment fund GIC will mean for the Northern Netherlands. AkzoNobel has taken the lead in efforts to make the chemical industry more sustainable in recent years, and what impact the sale will have on the company’s focus on going green is not yet known.
AkzoNobel announced the sale of the specialty chemicals division, which includes units focused on functional chemicals, industrial chemical, performance chemicals and surface chemistry, would be sold to The Carlyle Group, an American multinational private equity corporation, and GIC, a sovereign wealth fund in Singapore, on Tuesday morning. AkzoNobel CEO Thierry Vanlancker expects net proceeds to be closer to 7.5 billion euros.
