PVC producer Vinnolit Kunststoff GmbH (D-85737 Ismaning) is to become the second German player to be sold to financial investors. US private equity group Advent International Inc. has agreed to acquire the business for an undisclosed sum from 50:50 partners Celanese AG (D-65926 Frankfurt) and Wacker Chemie (D-81727 Munich). This follows the November 1999 sale of Vestolit, the Degussa-Hüls (D-60287 Frankfurt) subsidiary, to an investors group led by D. George Harris. Advent was a minority partner in this transaction, supplying less than 10% of the funding.

Advent also plans to acquire Vintron GmbH, at Knapsack, Germany, from Celanese Chemicals Europe GmbH. Vintron´s plants feed part of production at Vinnolit, which with EUR 425m in annual sales produces 570,000 t/y of PVC polymer. Completely backward integrated, over 60% of Vinnolit´s portfolio is high-performance. New capacity of 55,000 t/y is to go onstream later this year.Vinnolit also has a thriving licensing business. In 1999 it founded a separate company to market its technology for suspension PVC, 1.2 dichloroethane (EDC) and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM).

The deal marks one of the final steps in Celanese´s sell-off of non-core businesses “inherited” from former parent company, Hoechst. Wacker will exit the PVC sector after 65 years. Until early 1999, Vinnolit had been widely expected to merge with rival Vestolit. However, talks broke down. D. George Harris expressed disappointment at Advent´s move. Vinnolit and Vestolit are a “good strategic fit” and belong together, he commented. Some observers see that as at least a remote possibility in the medium term.