PARIS - Arkema has announced plans to acquire the Coatings Resins (Cray Valley and Cook Composite Polymers) and Photocure Resins (Sartomer) businesses of Total’s Specialty Chemicals activities for a EUR 550 million enterprise value. The project would establish Arkema as a leader in the global coatings resins market. It would further increase the downstream integration of its acrylics chain, while offering major potential for growth and synergies.

The businesses comprise the coatings resins of Cray Valley (Europe, Asia and South Africa) and Cook Composite Polymers (United States), as well as the photocure resins of Sartomer (Europe, the United States and Asia). These make up a coherent group of specialty products used in the paint and industrial coatings markets.

With growing sales of approximately EUR 850 million, and almost 1750 employees at some 20 sites around the world, these activities would enhance Arkema’s current position in these markets.

The proposed acquisition would bolster Arkema’s downstream acrylics activities as a logical follow-up to the acquisition of Coatex in 2007 and to the acquisition of the emulsions purchased from Dow in North America at the beginning of 2010. The acrylic downstream integration would reach 40 percent.

The project is subject to the mandatory information and consultation process involving personnel representatives from the Arkema and the Total groups, as well as the approval of antitrust authorities in the countries concerned. The deal should be closed in the first half of 2011.