M&G ACQUIRES SHELL CHEMICALS' GLOBAL PET BUSINESS

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M&G ACQUIRES SHELL CHEMICALS' GLOBAL PET BUSINESS
01 June 2000 - M&G Group

On 1st June, 2000, the Mossi & Ghisolfi Group (M&G) acquired the PET (polyethylene terephthalate) business of Shell Chemical Companies and finalises the transaction announced on February 3rd, 2000.

The acquisition includes Shell Chemicals' manufacturing plants in the Italy, Mexico, the US and UK, the European and American sales and marketing networks and associated research and development activities in the USA. M&G is now the third largest producer of PET for packaging applications with a capacity of around 680kt.

Marco Ghisolfi, CEO of the polyester Resin Business Unit of the M&G Group, comments on the acquisition, 'I am very excited about the prospects and opportunities that lie ahead. M&G is a family business that has grown to become a significant European player in polyester packaging and can provide customers with different and innovative packaging solutions.

'PET is a fast growing market and in most geographical areas supply is becoming tight. M&G has always been committed to the industry and is capable of growing further to meet demand - our ability to finalise the Shell PET acquisition is proof that smaller companies can secure financing just as well as large multinationals. In the short term, we believe some additional margin recovery needs to be made and plant utlisation reviewed to ensure we optimise our facilities to ensure they are all economically viable.

'In the UK this means closing down current operations at the Crystal Polymers site and reviewing its long-term future and possible expansion plans - in its current size and configuration it is no longer economically viable in the short-term. Our solid stating capacity will be absorbed into the remainder of the M&G PET Group to make direct cost savings and we will continue to serve UK customers from our sites in Italy - the rest of the business remains unaffected.

'When the time comes, M&G will be one of the first to reinvest in the market. We can do this as we are committed to the market, have a fast decision making process, world-class engineering competence and do not carry the baggage of a four year loss-making past.'

http://www.mgpolymers.com

About: M&G Group
M&G is a family owned chemical engineering company headquartered in Tortona, Italy. It develops innovative and cost effective PET resins for container packaging and is presently the world’s second largest producer of PET for packaging applications with production capacity of 1.3 million tonnes per annum. Group sales proceeds in 2003 were $1.6 billion of which around 80% were derived from operations involving PET.

M&G Group is divided into three business units, PET Polymer, PET Packaging and Acetates. In Europe, M&G has capacity to produce around 2.5 billion preforms per annum at two locations in Italy. It operates the largest SSP unit in North America and has the current world’s largest PET production unit (1200t/d) at its Altamira facility in Mexico. The Group has manufacturing assets in Brazil, Italy, Mexico and USA. The Group supports three R&D Facilities; Italy, USA and Brazil.

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