Arkema has sold its functional polyolefins business to SK Global Chemical.
No purchase price was disclosed in a June 2 news release announcing the deal between Arkema of Colombes, France, and SK of Seongnam-si, South Korea.
The sale includes French production sites in Balan, Mont and Carling.
Arkema officials said the business has annual sales of around 250 million euros (US$279 million) and had an enterprise value of 335 million euros (US$374 million).
The functional polyolefins business makes ethylene copolymers and terpolymers for food packaging, cable, electronics and coatings. The unit employs around 100 in France and has around 30 global sales reps.
Arkema officials said in the release that based on its enterprise value, the divestment "is fully in line" with the firm's strategy to become a pure player in specialty materials by 2024.
In April, Arkema announced plans to divest its market-leading acrylic resin and sheet business. The functional polyolefins business being sold is part of that unit. Officials previously said that the businesses being sold have "more volatile results."
Arkema's per-share sales price is down about 17 percent since Jan. 1. On a recent earnings call, Chairman and CEO Thierry Le Hénaff said that although the firm's acrylic sheet plants in France and the U.S. are busy, "it's far from being sufficient to offset for the automotive group," which is suffering from the global auto shutdown.
The per-share price was around 82 euros (US$91) on June 2. Arkema employs more than 20,000 globally and posted sales of 8.7 billion euros (US$9.7 billion) in 2019.