Hungary's leading petrochemicals company, Tiszai Vegyi Kombinat Ltd., is seeking a buyer for its plastics processing operations and its majority stakes in film and thermoforming plants in Austria, Romania and Hungary. TVK of Tisza£jvaros, Hungary, has hired New York investment banker Donaldson Lufkin & Jennette to find a buyer for the operations, which employ 1,950 and had estimated 1999 sales of 44 billion Hungarian florins ($166 million).
In January, TVK had announced a deal to sell the film extrusion, blow molding and injection molding operations to Pannonplast Industries plc of Budapest, Hungary. That deal fell through, however, and the businesses are back on the block, according to TVK.
Pannonplast pulled out of the deal at the due-diligence stage, believing the "take-it-or-leave-it" asking price did not provide the potential payoff against the risks involved in the purchase, according to Janos Illessy, Pannonplast's deputy chief executive of finance. However, he praised TVK's facilities and the quality and motivation of the work force.
Pannonplast also does injection molding, extrusion, sheet calendering and film extrusion.
TVK's wholly owned, Tisza£jvaros-based processing units include:
Flexofol, a maker of industrial and stretch film.
Helioplast, an agricultural film extruder.
Formplast, an injection molder and blow molder of containers and auto parts.
Biafol, which makes biaxially oriented polypropylene film.
Tiszatextil Ltd., a producer of woven sacks and textiles.
In addition, the company owns majority shares of several other film, thermoforming and molded products companies.
Processing activities account for about 40 percent of TVK sales. The company operates Hungary's only ethylene facility, plus polyethylene and PP resin plants.
The company has a $450 million expansion under way that includes adding 132 million pounds per year of PE capacity.