Westlake Chemical To Buy Germany's Vinnolit For EUR490 Mln.

(RTTNews) - Petrochemical company Westlake Chemical Corp. (WLK), Wednesday said it agreed to buy Germany-based Vinnolit Holdings GmbH and its subsidiaries from private equity firm Advent International for 490 million euros.

Westlake plans to finance the deal with existing cash and credit facilities. The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter, subject to closing conditions.

"The acquisition of Vinnolit is an excellent strategic fit for Westlake. It will allow us to expand our chlorvinyl business globally and adds important specialty PVC products and technology to our existing portfolio," says Albert Chao, Westlake's President and CEO.

Vinnolit specializes in manufacturing polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resins. The company had generated revenues of 917 million euros in 2013 and employs around 1,400 employees.

Vinnolit has six production facilities located in Gendorf, Burghausen, Cologne, Knapsack and Schkopau in Germany and Hillhouse in the United Kingdom. These operations have a combined annual capacity of 780 thousand metric tons of PVC. Polyvinyl chloride, the third-most widely produced polymer, is used in plumbing, electrical cable insulation and inflatable products and other applications where it replaces rubber.

WLK is currently trading at $78.90, up $2.01 or 2.61%, on the NYSE.