By Chris Sweeney, Crain News Service
COLOGNE, Germany (Sept. 7, 2015) — Lanxess A.G. has initiated a process that will transfer its rubber business to a legally independent business entity within the Lanxess Group.
The plan is for the new entity to comprise its Tire & Specialty Rubbers and High Performance Elastomers business units, which together operate 20 plants with about 3,700 employees and represent more than $1 billion in annual sales.
Lanxess revealed the plan in its second quarter financial report.
A company spokesman said the creation of a legally independent business entity facilitates the reporting of key financial figures, such as sales or EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), making it easier to bring the rubber business into a potential alliance.
The process is part of Lanxess' three-phased realignment program, which CEO Matthias Zachert said is on schedule. The third phase is focused on improving the competitiveness of the business portfolio through potential alliances in the rubber business.
Mr. Zachert said Lanxess is “currently engaged in very constructive discussions and assumes that it will achieve concrete results in the course of the second half of the year.”
