Evonik Industries (Essen / Germany; www.evonik.com) has agreed to sell its carbon black business to private equity firm Rhône Capital LLC (New York, New York / USA; www.rhonegroup.com) in a deal valued at more than EUR 900m. The German company had put the carbon black business up for sale in September 2010 as part of plans to focus on its core chemicals operations – see Plasteurope.com of 27.09.2010.

“We are putting the business in good hands,” said Evonik chairman Klaus Engel. “The transaction is good for Evonik, the future of the carbon black business, and its employees. At the same time, this represents another major step toward a more clear-cut profile for Evonik as a leading specialty chemicals company when it goes public.”

Evonik’s carbon black business reported revenues of EUR 1.2 bn in 2010. It has 16 production facilities in 11 countries, and has 1,650 employees, of which about 50 are based in Germany. The transaction is expected to be completed in the summer of 2011, subject to approval by Evonik’s supervisory board and the antitrust authorities.

The deal follows the announcement earlier this year that Aditya Birla (Mumbai, Maharashtra / India; www.adityabirla.com) is expanding its carbon black business through the acquisition of Columbian Chemicals (Marietta, Georgia / USA; www.columbianchemicals.com).
The Indian group is purchasing the equity in Columbian Chemicals owned by One Equity Partners, boosting its carbon black production to 2m t/y. Aditya Birla said it has six carbon black manufacturing plants across four countries, while Columbian Chemicals has 11 plants in nine countries. When it announced the deal in January, Aditya Birla said it expected to complete the transaction in the second half of 2011.