The intention is simply to make the new company into the “greatest company in the world”, explains General Electric chairman, Jack Welch, setting the sights as high as ever, following the spectacular acquisition of US conglomerate Honeywell (101, Columbia Road, Morristown, NJ 07962, USA). And the USD 45bn deal will, indeed, be creating a multi-industry company with pro-forma sales of some USD 155bn (130bn GE, 25bn Honeywell), profits of USD 15bn and a payroll of 465,000. According to Welch, there are basically no relevant overlaps in product lines in any of the key fields of activity, and the new giant will boast a perfectly- dovetailed range of complementary activities.

This also applies to the two US groups´ interests in the plastics field. The USD 6.9bn-strong activities of GE Plastics (European HQ: NL-4500 Bergen op Zoom) include “Gelon” and “Noryl GTX”-brand polyamides in the portfolio, which have more of a niche existence. Following last year´s merger with AlliedSignal, however, Honeywell is now one of the biggest players in the global polyamide market. Its current Performance Polymers division recorded sales of approximately USD 1.8bn last year. The company regards itself as the world´s biggest producer of feedstock caprolactam for engineering PA applications. At the same time, with its “Capron”, “Petra” and “Nypel” brands, it constitutes one of the biggest producers of PA 6 for these applications. Honeywell´s commitment in Europe amounts to some 30,000 t/y at the German location of Rudolstadt. GE Plastics´ market position for engineering plastics will be improved at one fell swoop by the acquisition, and the company will be acquiring a further mainstay with PA.