— By Plasteurope.com staff — 

The sale of OQ Chemicals (Monheim, Germany; https://chemicals.oq.com), which has been planned and rumoured for some time, seems to be imminent. According to several media reports, the two creditors Strategic Value Partners and Blantyre Capital want to take over the Monheim-based carboxylic acid specialist completely. Both buyers are investment companies that have already invested almost EUR 250 mn in OQ Chemicals. A spokesperson for the company confirmed the corresponding media reports to Plasteurope.com, but they did not provide any information on the purchase price. The deal is expected to be completed by May.

Related: OQ Chemicals to raise prices for numerous intermediates produced in Europe

The Omani oil and gas group OQ (Sohar; www.oq.com) had been planning to sell its heavily indebted EUR 1 bn subsidiary for some time. The Omanis themselves had taken over OQ more than 10 years ago from the US financial investor Advent for allegedly around EUR 1.8 bn. To put this in perspective, last year, the company generated sales of EUR 1.3 bn. To ensure the liquidity of the Monheim-based speciality chemicals manufacturer, OQ recently had to inject EUR 75 mn.

OQ Chemicals had run into financial difficulties in recent years due to rising raw material and energy costs. A cost-cutting program provided for 350 of the 1,400 jobs to be cut. It is unclear how much of this has been implemented so far. The majority of the production of oxo intermediates and derivatives such as alcohols, polyols, and carboxylic acids takes place in Germany. A month ago, the Omani owner OQ sold a small unit of the former Oxea in the Netherlands to speciality chemicals manufacturer Perstorp (Perstorp, Sweden; www.perstorp.com).