Mitsubishi Rayon Prepares to Complete Lucite Acquisition in January

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Mitsubishi Rayon Company Limited (TYO:3404) (Tokyo, Japan) is on target to complete the pending acquisition of Lucite International Limited (Southampton, United Kingdom) by the end of this month, potentially on January 27. The estimated $1.6 billion acquisition, which was announced in November of 2008, encompasses all of Lucite's businesses throughout the world, including 14 manufacturing locations. The completion of this transaction comes at a time when many in the chemical processing industry (CPI) around the world are re-evaluating their strategic plans or even cancelling them, as recently seen in the proposed K-Dow Petrochemicals joint venture involving The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) (Midland, Michigan) and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (Kuwait City, Kuwait).

Lucite International is a leading producer of methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomers, one of the basic materials used to produce acrylic resins. This continues to be a growth market for Lucite, which has plans for the construction of at least two additional grassroot MMA plants in the next two years--one in China and another in Saudi Arabia. Despite the apparent positive long-term outlook, MMA production is not immune to current market woes. Lucite's Nederland, Texas, plant site has been idle since late December because of market constraints, and no definitive date for a restart is known. Several planned maintenance turnarounds for this site have been changed from the first quarter of 2009 to September.

Industrial Info is currently tracking nearly $600 million in future or ongoing capital and maintenance projects planned by Lucite International and Mitsubishi Rayon. The completion of this acquisition will position Mitsubishi Rayon to increase its present growth potential, globally leveraging very successful brands, technologies and customer relationships.

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