Polyurethane foams specialist Recticel (Brussels / Belgium; www.recticel.com) has signed binding agreements to divest its 50% stake in Eurofoam (Vienna / Austria; www.eurofoam.eu) as well as its Automotive Interiors division. With both these transactions, CEO Olivier Chapelle is aiming to stick to the course of refocusing Recticel on its higher value-added business, which began with the sale of its majority holding of Proseat in 2019 – see Plasteurope.com of 27.02.2019. As a result of the two transactions, Recticel’s annual sales – most recently EUR 1.04 bn – are expected to fall by nearly EUR 400m.

Eurofoam, which has a turnover of EUR 400m, will go entirely to its long-time partner Greiner (Kremsmünster / Austria; www.greiner.at), which made an offer in 2019 together with Kingspan – see Plasteurope.com of 29.04.2019. The Belgian company rejected the offer at that time because it believed a sale would not be in the interest of its stakeholders.

With the Automotive Interiors division, for which Recticel had been looking for a new solution for some time now, privately owned investment firm Admetos (Munich / Germany; www.admetos.eu) has now come into the equation. A new joint venture is to be established for the production of instrument panels and door liners, which account for a large share of the automotive division with sales of EUR 224m. Admetos will hold 51%, and an option for the purchase of the other 49% in 2024 is part of the agreement.

Although Admetos says it is independent, it is evidently closely tied to German plastics processor Prettl (Pfullingen; www.prettl.com). One of the managing shareholders is Florian Prettl, who is also the managing director of Prettl Private Equity. The Prettl group of companies last drew attention to itself through the acquisition of E&E supplier Providing Appliance Solutions (PAS, Neuruppin / Germany; www.pas-net.com) and the manufacturer of sealants, Toyoda Gosei Meteor (Bockenem / Germany; www.tg-meteor.com). Prettl itself has activities including control panels for household appliances, car production, electronics and cable manufacture.

Recticel also confirmed that its Chinese car manufacturing plants were returning to the level before the coronavirus outbreak. In Europe, auto production stopped in March, with the assembly lines at a standstill – see Plasteurope.com of 20.03.2020. Other segments report significant declines since public life has been disrupted in many countries around the world. Chapelle says production has been adapted to this reduced demand through cutbacks and closures. The Belgian company is also tightening its belt – capital investment has been reduced to a minimum and all non-essential projects have been put on ice. The forecast submitted at the end of February for fiscal 2020 showed an increase in EBITDA, but this, says Chapelle, is no longer tenable.