ALFA announces Alpek will acquire Lotte Chemical’s UK site

ALFA has announced that its subsidiary Alpek has signed an agreement with Lotte Chemical Corporation to acquire its 100 per cent stake in Lotte Chemical UK, which owns and operates a PET facility with an installed capacity of 350,000 tonnes per year in Teesside.

The transaction is expected to be completed before the end of 2019, subject to customary conditions precedent.

This marks Alpek’s first acquisition outside of the Americas as the company continues to grow its integrated polyester platform.

It also expands Alfa’s global footprint to 29 countries by adding the first production facility in the UK.

Gordon Haire, Research Director at Wood Mackenzie, said: “This change of ownership market the exit of Lotte Chemical from manufacturing PET in Europe. “

“It also establishes a strong platform for Alpek to become a regional PET supplier in the European market. This may also have significant implications for regional PTA trade flows, as Lotte Chemical exported around 110kt per annum from Korea to the UK over the last few years.”

“Similarly, Alpek is a long-established supplier into the European PTA market. Lotte Chemical has concluded that the UK PET business does not fit the Lotte Vision 2030. Instead, Lotte is likely to add more weight to the newly expanded PIA business and reduce exposure to PTA.”

José de Jesús Valdez, CEO of Alpek, said: “This acquisition is well aligned with Alpek’s growth strategy, creating substantial value by integrating the asset into our global polyester footprint, marking our first acquisition outside of the America’s, and growing our current worldwide PET capacity to 2.8 million tonnes.”

“Moving forward, our team is focused on executing a seamless integration to capitalise on existing momentum and capture synergies.”