Celanese to acquire SO.F.TER.

FORLI, Italy—U.S. speciality materials company Celanese Corp. will acquire SO.F.TER. Group, the Forli-based supplier of engineering thermoplastics and thermoplastic elastomers, the companies announced Oct. 17.

The announcement came a day before SO.F.TER. will participate as an exhibitor at the K Show, which begins Wednesday in Duesseldorf, Germany.

Terms of the deal were not released, though Celanese expects to complete the acquisition in the fourth quarter of 2016, pending customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

The acquisition will nearly double the number of Celanese global engineered materials product platforms, and extend its footprint on both sides of the Atlantic, according to the joint announcement.

SO.F.TER. has around 550 employees in Italy, Mexico, Brazil and the U.S, and has 55 production lines across four manufacturing facilities in Europe and four in the Americas.

“Joining Celanese is a natural continuation of the SO.F.TER. Group success story of growth, customer innovation and application expertise,” Italo Carfagnini, chairman of the Italian company, said in a statement.

“From our beginnings in Italy in 1980 to being a key part of the Celanese engineered materials business, we will continue to drive innovative and highly specialized solutions for customers,” the chairman added.

For Celanese, Scott Sutton, executive vice president and president of its materials solutions unit, the acquisition is a step-up for Celanese in the engineered materials market.

“SO.F.TER. Group is a leader in the design, development and production of ETPs and TPEs with a fast and flexible customer-oriented business model that will integrate well within the materials solutions core of Celanese,” Sutton stated.

In 2014, So.F.Ter opened its first U.S. plant in Lebanon, Tenn. That 100,000-sq.-ft. site employs 50 and runs four lines with total annual production capacity of 50 million pounds. The plant makes compounds based on polypropylene, nylon, polyesters and thermoplastic elastomers, primarily for the U.S. automotive market.

Financial details were not disclosed. So.F.Ter's annual sales were estimated at $400 million in 2014. A more recent number was unavailable.

For Dallas-based Celanese, the deal represents a further diversification of its efforts in plastic materials. The firm ranks as the world's largest acetal maker and recently expanded its product offerings in nylon compounds and polyetheretherketone resins. Celanese also this year increased its production capacity for ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene in Bishop, Texas.

Celanese employs 7,500 worldwide and posted sales of around $5.7 billion in 2015. Sales in its Materials Solutions unit—including acetal, polyphenylene sulfide and other specialty resins—contributed almost 40 percent of the firm's total sales before eliminations last year.

The So.F.Ter deal is the first for Celanese since 2014 when it acquired most of the assets of U.S. conductive polymers maker Cool Polymers Inc. for an undisclosed price.

Frank Esposito, a reporter with Plastics News, contributed to this report.