It employs around 300 people on 6 industrial sites in France and in Italy: the Parentis, Saint-Bauzile, Riom-ès-Montagnes and Abidos sites in France, and the Legnago and Foggia sites in Italy.

The Calgon Carbon Group contacted CECA and the Arkema Group with a view to proposing a project for the purchase and development of this activity which is a natural fit to its core business. By joining Calgon Carbon, the Activated Carbon and Filter Aid activity should therefore be able to benefit from the size and the strategy of the American group in the field of purification and filtration.

The offer received is based on a €145 million enterprise value, i.e. a multiple of 9.5 on the basis of the 2015 EBITDA.

This proposed divestment is subject to an information and consultation process involving the trade unions, which CECA has now initiated, and to the approval of the relevant antitrust authorities. The project is expected to be finalized in 4th quarter 2016.

Following this divestment, the filtration and adsorption business will be mostly recentered on molecular sieves, surfactants, oilfield chemicals, and phosphorus derivatives.

After finalizing the divestment of Sunclear in November 2015, which represented sales of some €180 million, with this new proposed divestment Arkema is actively pursuing the implementation of its objective to divest some €700 million sales between 2015 and 2017.