DSM Petrochemicals' activities in Galeen (the Netherlands) and Gelsenkirchen (Germany) have been transferred to Sabic following approval received from the European commission. The transaction, which took effect retroactively from 1 January 2002, involves the transfer of all shares of the companies that together form DSM Petrochemicals (DPC), the associated DPC participations and sales activities, and the related technology positions, patents and trade names.
In 2001, DSM Petrochemicals posted sales of Euro 2.4 billion. The company annually sells about 2.6 million tonnes of polymers, mainly in Europe. As a consequence of the transaction, a total of about 2,300 DSM employees have been transferred to Sabic: the DSM Petrochemicals workforce (2,060 employees, of whom 1,530 are based in Geleen and 530 in Gelsenkirchen), plus a total of 220 people from other DSM units who work exclusively for DPC.
During ceremonial meetings held in Geleen and Gelsenkirchen at the beginning of July, DSM board chairman Peter Elverding handed over the businesses to Mohammed Al Mady, vice chairman and managing director of Sabic.
DSM is active worldwide in life science products, performance materials and industrial chemicals and ranks among the global leaders in many of its fields. The group has annual sales of close to Euro 6 billion and employs about 20,000 people at more than 200 sites across the world.
The company's strategic aim is to grow its sales (partly through acquisitions) to a level of approximately Euro 10 billion in 2005. By that time specialties - advanced chemical and biotechnological products for the life science industry and performance materials - should generate at least 80 per cent of sales.
Sabic, based in Riyadh, was founded in 1976. The Saudi government owns 70 per cent of Sabic shares with private investors in Saudi Arabia and other countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) holding the remaining shares.
Sabic's business activities, after a restructuring, will have, effective September 2000, six Strategic Business Units (SBUs): Basic Chemicals; Intermediates; Polyolefins; PVC and Polyester (which will be grouped under a new petrochemicals division), Fertilisers and Metals. Two new divisions have been created: Global Businesses, responsible for overseas business, and a Shared Services Organisation, which will become operational in early 2003. Supporting these functions will be a corporate core consisting of human resources, corporate finance, corporate control and research and technology (R&T).
Sabic has two large industrial sites in Saudi Arabia (Al Jubail and Yanbu), with 16 world-scale production complexes. Some of these production complexes are operated with multi-national partners such as ExxonMobil, Shell, Fortum, Ecofuel/ENI and Mitsubishi Chemicals. In addition, Sabic has interests in three production complexes in Bahrain. In the last 16 years its overall production capacity has increased to 35 mtpa (2001).
In 2001, Sabic posted sales of about SR29 billion (Euro 8.9 billion) and a net profit of SR1.8 billion (Euro 550 million).
