Clariant to divest significant part of coatings business

Shortly after Saudi Arabian investor Sabic bought a 24.99% share in Clariant, the company has announced that it intends to divest its pigments, standard masterbatches and medical specialities businesses by 2020.

The company said that the divestment decision underlines Clariant’s commitment to move the portfolio into higher speciality areas and to ensure best ownership for each of its businesses.

Despite being well positioned and having significantly increased its profitability over the past years, the businesses to be divested do not match the Group’s criteria to differentiate through innovation in higher growth and higher profitability areas.

Clariant announced an updated strategy and financial outlook, as well as the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with SABIC on a significant collaboration opportunity between the two companies in the area of high performance materials.

The Group intends to expand more strongly by focusing on customer-specific products and solution offerings with attractive growth prospects and above average value potential.

By 2021, following the creation of High Performance Materials and the divestment of the remaining Plastics & Coatings Business Area, Clariant expects to deliver significantly higher sales of around €8bn and an EBITDA margin of approximately 20% with an operating cash flow of more than €1bn.