In an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, carbon black producer Orion Engineered Carbons (Luxembourg; www.orioncarbons.com), has placed 19.5m common shares at USD 18 each. The shares in the company, until 2011 part of Evonik (Essen / Germany; www.evonik.com), were sold by Kinove Luxembourg Holdings, which owns 89.6% through private equity investors Triton Capital and Rhone Group. Kinove said it planned to use the proceeds from the sale to pay down debt.

Following the flotation, Orion will change its legal status to a Luxembourg joint stock corporation. The company employing 1,360 people worldwide at 14 global production sites and four applied technology centres, produces standard and high performance gas blacks, furnace blacks and speciality blacks for coatings, printing inks, polymers, rubber and other applications.