Kemira Chemicals Oy acquires the paper chemicals business of Neste Chemicals Oy. The acquisition consists of Austrian Krems Chemie AG's paper chemicals and Neste's share of CN-Paper Chemicals. In addition to this, Kemira Chemicals acquires the paper size business of Finnish Oy Chemec Ab. The purchase price is about €34 million and net sales of business is estimated at €35 million.
With these acquisitions Kemira becomes the most integrated and versatile producer of various paper sizes in the world. Krems has a leading market-position as a paper size manufacturer in Central Europe. Especially in the field of traditional rosin-based sizes, Krems is the undisputed market leader in German speaking Europe and Eastern Europe. The company has had earlier co-operation with Kemira in the field of AKD size. In the field of ASA and surface sizes, Neste has co-operated with Chemec. The company is currently inaugurating the largest European ASA production unit in Krems, Austria. Chemec is the leading ASA size supplier in Finland.
The acquired production facilities are located in Austria, Poland, Turkey, and Russia. In Central Europe Krems co-operates on the market with Chemische Fabrik Brühl through the company PCS.
These acquisitions are part of the strategy of Kemira Group to become during the next few years one of the leading pulp and paper chemicals producers in the world. At present, Kemira is a substantial producer of bleaching chemicals, specialty chemicals for the wet end of paper machines and water treatment chemicals representing net sales of €350 million. The objective of Kemira is to be able to offer the customers complete chemical solutions for pulp and paper manufacturing supported with superior service. The conditions for meeting these objectives now become substantially better in Central Europe.
Paper sizes are used to improve printability of paper and to improve water resistance especially in printing and writing paper grades as well as liquid packaging boards. The demand for size will rapidly increase as the demand for papers with better printability and better production efficiency increases.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval from competition authorities in Austria, Germany and Poland.