Bayer MaterialScience AG plans to acquire Ure-Tech Group of Taiwan to expand its presence significantly in the thermoplastic polyurethane resins and film market.
The acquisition of Ure-Tech will make Bayer MaterialScience the world's largest producer of TPU resins and films, Bayer claims. Ure-Tech employs about 180, has sales of about $55 million annually and is the biggest TPU provider in the Asia-Pacific region, the company said.
Bayer said the purchase will have no negative impact on employees.
After the acquisition, Bayer MaterialScience will have six TPU resin and two film plants in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region - which includes Ure-Tech sites in Taichung, Taiwan, and Shenzhen. They will be linked by a worldwide network.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and should close in the first quarter of 2007. The purchase price and related details were not released.
Merging its activities with Ure-Tech will strengthen Bayer's TPU market position in the Asia-Pacific region, which will widen and solidify the company's market access, especially in Taiwan, China and south Asian countries, a spokesman said.
Basically, the acquisition will combine Bayer's global experience and its network of international customers and locations with Ure-Tech's market access, said Hagen Noerenberg, Bayer MaterialScience's chairman.
It also provides the impetus for the firm to accelerate its global growth in the TPU resins market, the company said.
Bayer MaterialScience's international headquarters is in Leverkusen.
Meanwhile, the company is building the world's largest single-train methylene diphenyl diisocyanate facility - with annual capacity of almost 772 million pounds - in Caojing, China. The plant is expected to be up and running in 2008.