Dyneon buys firm, remaining interest in venture

ST. PAUL, Minn. (Aug. 27)—3M subsidiary Dyneon L.L.C. has entered into an agreement to acquire Solvay Fluoropolymers Inc. and a 50-percent interest in a joint venture from Solvay America Inc. The deal, which is expected to close in late 2002, calls for Dyneon to buy Solvay Fluoropolymers, a maker of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) homopolymers and copoloymers, and Solvay's half interest in Alventia L.L.C., a Dyneon-Solvay joint venture that produces VF2, a building block for PVDF, a 3M spokeswoman said. PVDF materials are used primarily in the wire/cable and chemical processing industries. Solvay Floropolymers' manufacturing facility in Decatur, Ala., will be divested and an unspecified number of the firm's workers transferred to a Dyneon plant in Decatur. "We don't have a good number on the on the employees yet," the spokeswoman said. "That's one of the details that's being worked out."