Japan's Kuraray Co. Ltd. will buy DuPont's Glass Laminating Solutions/Vinyl unit, a business worth more than $500 million in annual sales.
Kuraray will pay $543 million plus the value of the inventories under the terms of a definitive agreement announced Nov. 21.
The GLS/Vinyls group supplies polyvinyl butyral and ionomer sheets for safety glass and vinyl acetate monomer and polyvinyl alcohol for the architectural, automotive and industrial applications. It has six manufacturing sites in the U.S., Europe and Asia and 600 employees. It is part of Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont's packaging and industrial polymers group. The business includes DuPont's SentryGlas line of films.
Tokyo-based Kuraray says it was an early adopter of PVA and already supplies PVA resin, PVB resin and film and PVA film and fiber. It expects to use the GLS/Vinyls group to boost its business in vinyl acetate, said Keiji Murakami, president of Kuraray's vinyl acetate company.
"GLS/Vinyls will have a good home with Kuraray," said William J. Harvey, president of DuPont's packaging and industrial polymers group. "That company's focus on PVA as a central part of its core vinyl acetate business, its strong global market position and its capacity to invest in GLS/Vinyls all make this a good fit."
