29th Jun 2006 12:05
Imperial Chemical Industries PLC29 June 2006 ICI AGREES SALE OF UNIQEMA FOR £410 MILLION Imperial Chemical Industries PLC has reached an agreement to sell itsoleochemicals and surfactants business, Uniqema, to Croda International PLC fora gross consideration of £410 million, subject to closing balance sheetadjustments, including working capital and net debt. The net consideration willbe paid in cash on completion. Of the gross consideration, £24 million will be used to provide for deal-relatedcosts and tax. Of the balance, approximately £130 million will be used to reduce ICI's relatedpost-retirement benefit deficits and around £256 million will be used in thenear term to reduce net debt. The transaction is expected to give rise to aprofit after tax of around £16 million which will be accounted for as a specialitem in ICI's Income Statement when the deal has been completed. The transaction is expected to be completed in Quarter 3, 2006, subject toapproval by Croda shareholders, regulatory approval and employee consultation.In the case of the Uniqema business within ICI India Limited, the transaction issubject to its shareholders' approval. The Uniqema business within ICI PakistanLimited will not be part of the transaction. ICI took the strategic decision in February to divest Uniqema. ICI ChiefExecutive John McAdam stated at the time that there was no compelling need todivest Uniqema, but if there was scope to realise value from a sale, ICI wouldhave several attractive opportunities to invest the proceeds in other parts ofICI. Dr McAdam said today: "We are pleased with the outcome of this sale process,and we are confident that we can deploy these resources into other parts of ICIwhich we believe can generate greater strategic and financial returns for ourshareholders." He added: "I want to thank Uniqema's employees for their outstanding service toICI over many years and wish them every success." For the year ended 31 December 2005 the Uniqema business being sold had sales of£626 million and EBITDA of £49 million. At 31 December 2005 it had gross assetsof £461 million. - End - 29 June 2006 Contact:Investor enquiries: John Dawson, VP IR and CommunicationsTel: +44 (0) 20 7009 5091 Media enquiries:ICI - Regina S. Kilfoyle, Director of Corporate CommunicationsTel: +44 (0) 20 7009 5410Brunswick - Mike SmithTel: +44 (0) 20 7404 5959 About Uniqema Uniqema is a leading manufacturer of surfactants, oleochemicals and relatedderivatives. Its markets include polymers, lubricants, personal care,healthcare, process intermediates, crop protection, oilfield, textiles, polymeradditives and cleaning. The business has manufacturing facilities in 11countries and is headquartered at Gouda in the Netherlands. It hasapproximately 2,500 employees, who will transfer to Croda. About ICI ICI is one of the world's major specialty products and paints businesses.Alongside Uniqema, the Group's principal businesses are National Starch, Questand ICI Paints, which together account for more than 90% of ICI's sales. Todayaround a quarter of ICI's sales are made in Asia Pacific and 40% in the Americaswith less than 12% now made in the UK. ICI products today include flavours and starches for the food industry,fragrances, surfactants and specialty polymers for personal care products,adhesives for the electronics and packaging markets as well as a wide range ofdecorative coatings and specialty products for domestic use and theconstruction industry. Listed on both the London and New York Stock Exchanges,ICI is a member of the FTSE100, FTSE4Good and the Dow Jones SustainabilityIndex. ICI has approximately 32,000 employees worldwide and had sales in 2005 of5.8 billion GBP. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Croda International