WAYNE, Pa.—Materials firm Trinseo is restarting the sales process for its styrenics business and changing strategy to include marketing individual assets and regional businesses included in that unit.
Officials with Trinseo in Wayne, Pa., announced that change in a May 4 news release that included the firm's first-quarter financial results. During 2022, Trinseo attempted to sell its styrenics business, but ended those efforts in July because of unfavorable economic conditions.
When the sale was paused, President and CEO Frank Bozich said that "while the separation of the styrenics business is part of our transformation strategy, the current economic and financing environments make it challenging to get a value for the assets that is reflective of their significant cash generation."
Trinseo units covered by the sale are polystyrene resin plants in Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong and Indonesia and styrene monomer plants in Germany and the Netherlands. It's unclear how the change in strategy would affect Trinseo's 50 percent ownership of North American PS maker Americas Styrenics L.L.C., which was included in the original sales attempt.
AmSty—based in The Woodlands, Texas—is a joint venture between Trinseo and Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. The firm is one of North America's largest PS makers, operating five PS resin plants in the U.S., as well as one in Colombia and a stryrene monomer unit in St. James, La.