Styron (Europe: Horgen / Switzerland; www.styron.com) has filed the Form F-1 statement needed to register its shares with the US stock market watchdog Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Private equity investor Bain Capital Partners (Europe: London / UK; www.baincapitalprivateequity.com), the majority owner of the Dow Chemical (www.dow.com) spin-off since June 2010, is seeking an initial public offering for the company under a new name, Trinseo – see Plasteurope.com of 14.04.2011.

Without being specific about how much equity the owners are seeking to unload, the filing says the offering “may consist of newly issued shares as well as shares sold by stockholders.” Bain holds 62.5% of Styron, which reported sales of USD 5 bn for 2010. Dow has retained a 7.5% stake up to now. Deutsche Bank Securities and Goldman Sachs are the joint book-running managers of the ipo in cooperation with the underwriters, which include several prominent investment banks.

The SEC filing indicates that the owners hope to raise up to USD 400m through the offering. Financial analysts comment that the exit time is unusually short, as private equity companies normally own the acquired assets for several years. US news reports note that Trinseo joins a spate of sell-offs being advanced by private equity investors, who held on to their properties longer than expected, due to the economic crisis.