At an extraordinary general meeting (egm), shareholders of La Seda de Barcelona (Barcelona / Spain; www.laseda.es) approved an equity increase of EUR 300m by an 88.3% majority. The increase is linked to a debt for equity swap. For a total capital injection of EUR 150m, Portugal’s BA Vidro (Lisbon; www.bavidro.com) stands to gain a stake of up to 30% in La Seda. After shedding its EUR 466.5m debt burden the Spanish PET producer plans to refocus on the bottle market – see Plasteurope.com of 16.12.2009.

As part of its ongoing restructuring scheme, La Seda is selling its PET polymerisation plants at Tarragona / Spain, Portalegre / Portugal and Acerra / Italy, as well as plants in Greece and Turkey. Reports say the group has received offers of up to EUR 50m for the Tarragona facility and has extended the deadline for closure to take account of new bids. A buyer also is said to be in sight for the Portuguese site. The Italian facilities do not appear to have any takers, as yet, but La Seda hopes to have clinched deals for all the sites by the first quarter of 2010 (see Plasteurope.com of 29.07.2009).