Private equity giant Blackstone (New York / USA; www.blackstone.com) has completed its exit from chemicals and plastics producer Celanese (Dallas, Texas / USA; www.celanese.com). Funds advised by Blackstone received nearly USD 785m (EUR 581m) from the offering for which investment bank Morgan Stanley was sole underwriter. Celanese, parent company of engineering plastics producer Ticona (Kelsterbach / Germany; www.ticona.com), did not receive any of the proceeds.

This was the last of several major stock offerings launched by Blackstone since it acquired the chemicals arm of the former Hoechst for around EUR 3 bn in 2004. The private equity company, widely admired in the sector for its successful leveraged buyout strategy, is believed to have quadrupled its initial investment in the chemical group. Blackstone recently acquired rigid films producer Klöckner Pentaplast (Montabaur / Germany; www.kpfilms.com) from private equity group Cinven (London / UK; www.cinven.com) for EUR 1.3 bn – see Plasteurope.com Web of 09.05.2007.