Lanxess (Leverkusen / Germany; www.lanxess.com) has sold its remaining 49% shareholding in Ineos ABS, the joint venture with the Ineos group (Lyndhurst / UK; www.ineos.com). The sale was concluded at the end of September as planned – see Plasteurope.com of 13.03.2008 – Lanxess said this week. The jv had been carried as a purely financial asset since early 2008, and the divestment seals the Leverkusen chemical producer’s exit from the ABS market. The business, which had been unprofitable, was a legacy of the company’s past as the chemicals division of Bayer (Leverkusen; www.bayer.com).

The sale of the ABS stake and other streamlining measures announced by Lanxess but unrelated to plastics run parallel to the company’s “Challenge 09-12” programme, which was stepped up at the beginning of 2009 to deal with the widening economic crisis. Management has targeted cuts in worldwide costs of about EUR 360m up to 2012.