BASF sells pigments business to Japan's DIC (updated)

DIC

29/08/2019 10:18

* Price tag 1.15 bln eur on cash and debt-free basis
    * DIC says deal helps it reach 2025 sales target
    * BASF also selling construction chemicals unit

 (Adds industry background)
    By Ludwig Burger
    FRANKFURT, Aug 29 (Reuters) - German chemicals group BASF
 BASFn.DE  said on Thursday it agreed to sell its pigments
business to Japanese printing ink maker DIC corp  4631.T  for
1.15 billion euros ($1.28 billion) on a cash and debt-free
basis.
    BASF in February unveiled plans to put the business, with
about 1 billion euros in sales, on the auction block as it
continues to divest lower-margin businesses. It is also selling
its construction chemicals unit.
    For DIC - whose Sun Chemical subsidiary acquired Bayer's
 BAYGn.DE  pigments business in 2003 - the BASF deal helps to
achieve a goal of 1 trillion yen ($9.5 billion) in sales by
2025, it said.
    "BASF’s pigments portfolio is an important strategic
addition in meeting our goals more expeditiously," DIC Chief
Executive Kaoru Ino said in a statement. 
    Swiss peer Clariant  CLN.S  earlier this year also began the
sale of its pigments business under a wider streamlining
effort. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1Z94QD
    Private equity groups had been among the suitors for the
BASF unit, some of them with a view to potentially combining it
with the Clariant business, people familiar with the sector have
said.
        
    ($1 = 0.8973 euros)
    ($1 = 105.3900 yen)

 (Reporting by Ludwig Burger, editing by Thomas Escritt)
 ((ludwig.burger@thomsonreuters.com; +49 69 7565 1311; Reuters
Messaging: ludwig.burger.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))