Evonik Industries to Sell North American Cyanide Activities
Germany-based Evonik Industries has signed a contract for the sale of its U.S. and Canadian cyanide activities with Oaktree Capital Management. The cyanide business constitutes a part of the CyPlus Group owned by Evonik. The parties have agreed not to disclose financial terms of the transaction. The transaction is subject to approval by the regulatory authorities.
The transaction comprises of CyPlus Group’s business in the U.S. and Canada dedicated to the gold-mining industry. It includes a 50-percent share in Cyanco, a joint venture with Utah-based Nevada Chemicals, Inc., a publicly traded company and two subsidiaries of CyPlus GmbH—CyPlus Canada, Inc., and CyPlus Corporation. The number of employees in the businesses to be sold is about 40.
All of CyPlus GmbH’s activities at the sites in Hanau and Wesseling, Germany, and in Antwerp, Belgium, will remain part of Evonik’s hydrogen cyanide network and will continue to successfully operate in their current capacity, with a sharpened focus on emerging markets.
As a world leading cyanide producer, Evonik, through its CyPlus GmbH subsidiary provides products, technologies, and services to customers in the mining, chemical and pharmaceutical industries as well the surface treatment businesses.
About Evonik
Evonik Industries is the creative industrial group from Germany which operates in three business areas: Chemicals, Energy and Real Estate. Evonik is a global leader in specialty chemicals, an expert in power generation from hard coal and renewable energies, and one of the largest private residential real estate companies in Germany. Our strengths are creativity, specialization, continuous self-renewal, and reliability. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world. In its fiscal year 2007 about 43,000 employees generated sales of about €14.4 billion and an operating profit (EBITDA) of more than €2.2 billion.
Oaktree Capital Management
Oaktree Capital Management is a premier global alternative and non-traditional investment manager with over US$58 billion in assets under management. The firm emphasizes an opportunistic, value-oriented and risk-controlled approach to investments in distressed debt, high yield and convertible bonds, specialized private equity (including power infrastructure), real estate, emerging market and Japanese securities, and mezzanine finance.
Disclaimer
In so far as forecasts or expectations are expressed in this press release or where our statements concern the future, these forecasts, expectations or statements may involve known or unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results or developments may vary, depending on changes in the operating environment. Neither Evonik Industries AG nor its group companies assume an obligation to update the forecasts, expectations or statements contained in this release.