Plastic Omnium (PO, Levallois / France; www.plasticomnium.com), one of Europe's largest plastics converters, has announced three major steps towards achieving its declared strategy to focus on two core businesses – automotive equipment and environment (containers for waste disposal). Firstly, it will complete the acquisition of Sulo Environment Technology, which produces household waste bins and metal containers. Secondly, an externally financed MBO seems likely for the company's 3P segment (Performance Plastics Products). Lastly, through a restructuring of the activities of its majority shareholder, the Burelle family, two joint ventures for road signage will be created under the PO roof.

Following the takeover by Veolia Environnement (Paris / France; www.veoliaenvironnement.com) of Sulo (Herford / Germany; www.sulo.de), which is focused on waste disposal activities, Veolia decided to sell Sulo's waste bin production business. PO had already said that it intended to expand its environmental services segment, and Veolia, like PO, is French-based. It was therefore not surprising that the two companies quickly reached an agreement on the transaction of the business, although no details of the purchase price have been disclosed. With the acquisition, annual sales in PO's environment segment will rise by around EUR 200m to over EUR 600m. At the same time, it will gain a strong position on the German market and in Central and Eastern Europe. Approval by the cartel authorities is still pending.

A solution has also emerged for PO's smaller 3P segment, which has been on the "for sale" list for some time. 3P stands for performance plastics products and yields annual sales of around EUR 75m. It has been reported that "exclusive talks" are currently taking place between the company management and the private equity fund Osiris Partners regarding a majority acquisition (72%). Agreement appears to have been reached, but it is still subject to agreement by employee representatives.

In addition to PO, the Burelle family also owned Compagnie Signature (Nanterre / France; www.ciesignature.com), a producer of vertical metal and plastic signage with annual sales of EUR 240m. On 1 July 2007, it was acquired by Plastic Omnium. The activities will, however, not remain under direct PO control because an agreement has been reached with Eurovia (Rueil-Malmaison / France; www.eurovia.com), one of the world's leading builders of transportation infrastructure, on the establishment of two joint ventures. The proposed partnership is expected to be completed soon. PO will hold a 65% stake in the planned jv for vertical signage and Eurovia will hold the same stake in the new jv for horizontal signage.