South Korea’s Honam Petrochemical (Seoul; www.hpc.co.kr) has said it will pay about USD 1.25 bn in cash to acquire Titan Chemicals Corporation (Pasir Gudang / Malaysia; www.titangroup.com). Following an initial takeover of 72.6% of the shares held by Titan head James Chao and the state-run Permoladan Nasional, Honam plans to squeeze out the remaining shareholders.

The takeover catapults Honam, the petrochemical division of Korea’s Lotte Group (www.lotte.co.kr), into the league of leading Asian ethylene manufacturers. The company’s C2 capacity, currently at 1.75m t/y, will rise to about 2.5m t/y as a result, while revenues are expected to increase to EUR 8 bn.

Titan is considered to be Malaysia’s largest olefin and polyolefin manufacturer. Since its 2006 takeover of Indonesian polyethylene producer PT Petrokimia Nusantara (PT Peni, Jakarta), the Malay company is widely believed to be South East Asia’s second-largest polyolefin manufacturer. Titan operates 10 plants at its Malay production sites in Pasir Gudang and Tanjung Langsat, as well as in Indonesia. Company sales last amounted to USD 1.64 bn. All in all, Titan has capacities for 1m t/y of PE, 480,000 t/y of PP, 100,000 t/y of butadiene and 38,000 t/y of BOPP film.