French chemicals and plastics producer Arkema (Colombes; www.arkema.com) has announced plans to sell its plastic and aluminium sheet distribution subsidiary Sunclear (www.sunclear.fr) to the company’s long-time commercial partner BF Invest. Arkema said the move to sell the sheet distributor with annual sales of EUR 180m reflects its strategy of divesting assets worth EUR 700m in sales and refocusing on its core business activities.

Sunclear, which according to Arkema employs 354 people in France, Italy and Spain, belongs to the company’s PMMA business unit and is said to have an enterprise value of EUR 105m. The distributor markets polycarbonate and PMMA sheets as well as PVC, PP and PET panels. Talks with employee representatives in the affected countries are in progress, and the sale plan is to be presented to the Arkema central works council in France on 25 June.