Five years after its takeover of Spartech, PolyOne (Cleveland, Ohio / USA; www.polyone.com) is divesting the manufacturer's former core area of panels, compounds and packaging. The Designed Structures and Solutions (DSS) segment that includes sheets, roll stock and packaging assets will be distributed to Arsenal Capital Partners (New York / USA; www.arsenalcapital.com) for USD 115m (EUR 100m). PolyOne's chairman, president and CEO, Robert Patterson, said that the decision to divest the DSS division came after examining strategic options and "this is the best course of action for our customers, associates and shareholders." The company expects to close the transaction in Q3 of this year.

PolyOne purchased Spartech in 2012 for just under USD 400m. While the strategically important colour concentrator activities have now been integrated into PolyOne, the US compounder and distributor, which is worth a good USD 3 bn after sales, closed ten or more of the previous Spartech plants. This included the production site for polystyrene specialities and paints in Donchery / France, whose capacities were transferred to their own factories in France.

What still exists of the DSS segment today is not clear. Upon Plasteurope.com's request for more information, PolyOne spokesman Kyle Rose gave no details on the number of affected plants or their workforce. However, the division, which once again accounted for more than half of Spartech's last USD 1.1 bn turnover, is not likely to have too much leftover in light of the selling price. In addition, US media reports that DSS closed at a loss in 2016.

Arsenal is no stranger to the plastics industry. The company has already taken over several companies in the industry, most recently a US spray PU foams plant from Covestro (Leverkusen / Germany; www.covestro.com, see Plasteurope.com of 07.03.2017).