Shortly before the new year began, Sun European Partners (London / UK; www.suneuropeanpartners.com) – an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners (Boca Raton, Florida / USA; www.suncappart.com) – reached an agreement with Styrolution (Frankfurt / Germany; www.styrolution.com) to acquire the latter’s Elix Polymers (Tarragona / Spain; www.elix-polymers.com) ABS business. The deal, financial details of which were not disclosed, is expected to receive the official go ahead in H1 2012.

Formerly part of Ineos (Lausanne / Switzerland; www.ineos.com), Elix Polymers became part of Styrolution when the Lausanne-based group entered into the 50:50 styrenics joint venture with German chemical giant BASF (Ludwigshafen; www.basf.com). However, the European Commission had stipulated that the new Frankfurt-based styrenics player divest itself of its Tarragona business to restore competition in the European market for natural and pre-coloured ABS products – see Plasteurope.com of 06.10.2011.

Elix Polymers has capacity to turn out about 80,000 t/y of ABS in Tarragona. With a customer base of more than 300 clients across 40 countries, Elix Polymers expects its 2011 revenues to reach EUR 200m. The deal, struck on 30 December 2011, marked the culmination of a year of numerous plastics acquisitions on the part of Sun Capital – for an overview, see Plasteurope.com of 03.11.2011.