ExxonMobil Sells Santoprene Elastomers Business to Celanese for $1.15 Billion

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) (Dallas, Texas) is buying Exxon Mobil Corporation's (NYSE:XOM) (Irving, Texas) Santoprene elastomers business for $1.15 billion. The sale may help ExxonMobil reduce its $45 billion debt load, and Celanese says the purchase will help it gain a foothold in the growing electric vehicle field. Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) database includes plant profiles on two Santoprene facilities, one near Pensacola, Florida, and one in Wales, U.K.

The Santoprene business produces thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPV), which go into end-uses including automotive, construction, appliance, medical, and industrial, Celanese said. TPV features a combination of engineering thermoplastic and elastomer properties.

The sale includes two production facilities in Cantonment (Pensacola), Florida, and Newport, Wales, with more than 190,000 metric tons of total annual production capacity. The Wales facilities underwent an expansion in 2017, Celanese said.

Celanese said it is using money from the divesture of its $1.5 billion share in Polyplastics Company last year for the purchase of the Santoprene business.

Jack Williams, senior vice president of ExxonMobil, said in a press release that the sale "allows us to focus on serving the growing market for primary olefin derivatives, where we can leverage our competitive advantages of industry-leading scale, integration and proprietary technology."

The acquisition is expected to be finalized by the fourth quarter of this year.

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