BASF (Ludwigshafen / Germany; www.basf.com) is selling its liquid masterbatch business based at Clermont de l’Oise / France sum to US-based Audia International (Washington, Pennsylvania / USA) for an undisclosed sum. The deal is expected to close in mid-2014. Audia, a privately held major global supplier of polyolefins and colour masterbatches, will manage the activities as part of its subsidiary Uniform Color Company (Holland, Michigan / USA; www.uniformcolor.com).

The German group, the world’s largest chemical producer, said liquid masterbatches are a niche business and “not part of its future focus.” Going forward, it plans to concentrate on the solid and powder masterbatch end of its business, which is based at Cologne / Germany.

Audia termed the buy “very strategic.” Through Uniform Color and its other subsidiaries, Washington Penn Plastic (Washington, Pennsylvania / USA; www.washingtonpennplastic.com) and Southern Polymer (Atlanta, Georgia / USA; www.southernpolymer.com), the company has 10 manufacturing sites and more than 1,000 employees in North America and Europe. It supplies the automotive, appliance, construction, packaging and consumer sectors.

More than a decade ago, BASF sought to exit the colour masterbatch sector due to what is said were insufficient economies of scale, but after a suitable buyer was not found the group reorganised its operations to concentrate on clearly defined segments. In 2010, the last year for which comprehensive figures are available, A. Schulman, Clariant, Ampacet and PolyOne were the leading players in the European colour masterbatch market – see Plasteurope.com of 19.03.2012.