Reyes Groupe acquires Swisstex France

(textileworld) -- France-based industrial company Reyes Groupe has acquired all the assets of SwissTex France , a manufacturer of twisting, assembling, cabling, covering and winding machinery for technical and textile yarn markets, and formerly part of the SwissTex group also including SwissTex Winterthur AG, Switzerland. Going forward, Reyes will operate the company under the name Verdol. SwissTex France has been operating under a Chapter 11-type regulation of the French courts.

Reyes has worked with SwissTex for more than 25 years and is familiar with its products and expertise -- including brands such as Verdol, ICBT, Rieter ICBT and RITM. The new owner believes this knowledge will help it enhance Verdol's technological, commercial and financial strength.

"Verdol and its teams, which we renewed our confidence for the quality of work in recent years, will be able, given the new resources that we put now at their disposal, to bring you again a better service and remove the failures of the past," said Reyes Groupe CEO Christophe Reyes and Verdol General Manager Jean-Claude Gnonlonfoun, in announcing the acquisition.

MRC

(chemmonitor) -- The Russian company EuroChem is about to make a significant deal for the world fertilizer market. The manufacturer will become a new proprietor of the Germany-headquartered company K+S Nitrogen.

The Russia's firm is to pay EUR 140 (USD 182) million for the German company.

The transaction activities are to be finalized by July of the current year under terms of the agreement signed by the Russian manufacturer and Germany-based K+S Aktiengesellschaft, an actual proprietor of the German fertilizer firm.

MRC

(plastemart) -- Braskem has confirmed plans for a USD100 mln expansion in Brazil in a move that will ramp up the company's efforts to curb its environmental footprint. Braskem, the world's first producer of green plastic produced from 100% sugar cane derivatives, plans to fund a new plant to produce 30,000 tpa of polypropylene, dubbed Green PP, from ethanol.

The new plant will be built adjacent to Braskem's existing 200 tpa green PE facility, at it's 60 km sq site in Rio Grande de Sul, and is expected to be completed in 2013.

Currently, green PE is available at a premium of about 20% compared to conventional PE, but reduces the carbon impact by 2.3 kilo tons of CO2 per ton, vs gas or naphtha based PE.

MRC

(polyestertime) -- Profits dropped by more than two thirds at Artenius PET Packaging UK (APPE) in 2011 as the
container maker was hit by decreased sales volumes and shrinking margins.

APPE supplies containers and preforms to the food and beverage sector and to the personal care and healthcare sector. Despite turnover increasing from GBR164.5m to GBR170.8m in the year to 31 December 2011, APPE reported pre-tax profit of GBR2.4m, down from GBR8.5m in 2010.

The company said the increased turnover reflected the high price of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) resin but underlying volumes declined. Overall sales volumes fell by 13 %.

"2011 was a challenging year, arising from the current difficult economic situation and in particular, the significant increase in raw materials prices," said Chris Brown, APPE's business unit director for UK & Ireland.

APPE is part of Catalan parent group La Seda de Barcelona

MRC