The Klöckner group (Klöckner-Werke AG, PO Box 108053, D-47008 Duisburg) has taken Hoechst's (D-65926 Frankfurt) half of the rigid films joint venture Kalle Pentaplast GmbH (D-56401 Montabaur) in a deal already approved by German cartel authorities. Films producer Klöckner Pentaplast also is taking quick steps to expand the business, which had a workforce of 1,300 and sales of DEM 650m in financial year1996/97, along with production sites for PVC, UPP, APET and PS film at Montabaur, Gendorf and Graben-Neudorf, Germany, and Weert, The Netherlands. The company plans to acquire the packaging and films business of Aerni-Leuch AG (Liebefeld, Switzerland), producer of PVC, PET and PP films under the name "alfoil polymer film".

Market observers now anticipate Hoechst's withdrawal from two other films joint ventures. It holds 72% of OPP producer Hoechst Trespaphan GmbH with Courtaulds and a 66% share of Diafoil, the polyester films jv with Mitsubishi. Chairman Jürgen Dormann, who told an interviewer recently that Hoechst has completed 30 km of the 42-km stretch towards becoming a purely life sciences group, has made no secret of the fact that plastics no longer have strategic importance. Klöckner's films group, incorporating Kalle-Pentaplast and Klöckner Pentaplast of America, Inc. had 2,000 employees and pretax earnings of DEM 158m in 1996/97 on sales of DEM 1.05 bn. Adding Aerni Leuch's DEM 30m annual sales, Kalle Pentaplast projects turnover of DEM 700m for 1997/98.