Specialty chemicals maker Royal DSM NV has sold its melamine resin business to an Egyptian firm in a deal that also includes DSM's ammonia and fertilizers units.
Orascom Construction Industries of Cairo is buying those units from DSM, based in Heerlen, Netherlands, for 310 million euros ($418 million), according to a March 30 news release.
DSM's melamine unit posted sales of about 150 million euros ($202 million) in 2009. The unit ranks as the world's largest maker of melamine, a thermoset resin that mainly is used in wood-based panels and laminates for furniture and flooring. DSM makes the material at a plant in the Netherlands and at joint venture sites in China and Indonesia.
The ammonia and fertilizers business — known as DSM Agro — had sales of about 340 million euros ($460 million) in 2009. The combined businesses employ about 800.
Feike Sijbesma, DSM managing board chairman and CEO, said the sale “is a very important step in DSM's transformation towards a life science and material sciences company.”
OCI is a leading construction contractor in the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. The firm also operates its own fertilizers unit, which now will incorporate the DSM business.
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