Germany-based Prefere Resins Holding (Erkner; www.prefereresins.com) has acquired Ineos’ (Rolle / Switzerland; www.ineos.com) melamine resins and paraformaldehyde activities for an undisclosed sum. The transaction is pending approval by the authorities and expected to be complete in the second quarter of 2019.

Ineos Paraform is Europe’s second-largest producer of paraformaldehyde and its derivatives. The plant in Mainz / Germany employs a staff of 120. Ineos Melamines is, by its own account, a world leader in the supply of melamine resins to producers of decorative laminates as well as coatings for paper and textile, among others. It has 150 employees in Germany, Indonesia and the US.

Prefere Resins focuses its business in Europe, where it operates seven plants for phenolic and amino resins in Finland (2), France, Germany, Poland, Romania and the UK. It also has three R&D centres in Austria, Finland and Germany. According to the latest information, the company has a capacity of 350,000 t/y of resins for adhesives.

The phenolic resins producer was formed in 2000 as a spin-off of multiple Perstorp (Perstorp / Sweden; www.perstorp.com) and Neste (Espoo / Finland; www.neste.com) facilities. Until 2014, the group constituted the phenolic resins division of Dynea Chemicals (Helsinki / Finland; www.dynea.com). Prefere Resins, which since 2018 is part of European private equity investor Silverfleet Capital (www.silverfleetcapital.com), now carries out subcontract orders for its previous parent company. In 2017, it generated sales of EUR 220m with 320 employees working under CEO Arno Knebelkamp.