Swiss-based plastics processing and composites specialist Quadrant Holding (CH-8801 Zürich; www.quadrant.ch) will pay EUR 212m to acquire the Engineering Plastic Products (EPP) division of DSM (NL-6130 Sittard; www.dsm.nl). The deal, expected to be completed during the first half of March, will be made retroactive to 1 January 2001. The sale is part of DSM´s previously announced strategy to focus on life sciences and performance materials. – See Plasteurope.com 21, 2000. EPP manufactures and distributes semi-finished products made from engineering and high-performance plastics in two business segments at 23 locations in 16 countries. Shapes & Parts accounts for 88% of sales, Creative Mouldings and Systems for 12%. With annual sales of EUR 220m, the DSM engineering plastics business is bigger than the acquiring group.

The Swiss holding´s vice chairman, Arno Schenck, said EPP is “an excellent industrial fit” with Quadrant´s Symalit fluoroplastics business. Between 1997 and 2000, Quadrant made five acquisitions in plastics, all of which have been integrated into Symalit (PIE 20, 2000). The group expects synergy effects in composites, where Symalit claims to be European market leader in glass mat reinforced thermoplastics (GMT) for the automotive sector with a market share of 85%. Schenck has hinted at additional acquisition plans. For 2001, Quadrant expects sales of around CHF 500m, with about two-thirds in high performance plastics and a third in composites. To finance the acquisition, the group will borrow EUR 155m; the remaining EUR 57m will be drawn from its own funds. To finance this portion, it plans to issue 120,000 new bearer shares.