Clariant to sell its leather business

Clariant will begin the sale of its Leather Services and Detergents and Intermediates business units in the first quarter of next year, Kai Rolker a spokesman for the Swiss company, said on November 14. Clariant had said in March that the leather-chemicals unit was under review.

“It’s a good business, but it doesn’t match the requirements we have set ourselves,” Rolker said. The unit, which had revenue of 265 million Swiss francs ($280.4 million) last year, does not support Clariant’s plans to achieve a margin of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization on sales of 17% by 2015, he said.

Chief Executive Officer Hariolf Kottmann is expanding his list of assets for sale amid slowing demand for chemicals in Europe which caused the company to cut a full-year sales target on October 30. Kottmann has said he will sell some units by the end of next year to make space for less-cyclical businesses like catalysts and chemicals for the oil and mining industries.

The sale of leather chemicals is the second wave of a divestment program. A first round including the sale of paper-, textile-, and emulsions-chemicals units kicked off earlier this year. Clariant has no specific plans to carve out more divisions or for a third wave of disposals, Rolker said.

Source: Bloomberg