Trinseo announced price increases for copolymers in Europe

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo and its affiliate companies in Europe announced a price increase for all ABS and SAN grades, said Plasticker.

Effective August 1, 2019, or as existing contract terms allow, the contract and spot prices for the products listed below will increase as follows:

"Magnum” ABS resins by 35 Euro per metric ton

"Tyril" SAN resins by 35 Euro per metric ton

As MRC informed earlier, As MRC informed earlier, Trinseo has received regulatory approval for its planned acquisition of Dow Chemical’s latex production assets in Rheinmunster, Germany. The acquisition, announced in May, was an important initiative in improving Trinseo’s strategic position amid a difficult global macro environment.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD4.6 billion in net sales in 2018, with 16 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,500 employees.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber, and its affiliate companies in Europe announced a price increase for all polystyrene (PS), said the company.

Effective August 1, 2019, or as existing contract terms allow, the contract and spot prices for the products listed below will increase as follows:

"Styron" general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) by 50 Euro per metric ton
"Styron" and "Styron A-Tech" and "Styron X- Tech" high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) by 50 Euro per metric ton

As MRC informed earlier, Trinseo has received regulatory approval for its planned acquisition of Dow Chemical’s latex production assets in Rheinmunster, Germany. The acquisition, announced in May, was an important initiative in improving Trinseo’s strategic position amid a difficult global macro environment.

Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD4.6 billion in net sales in 2018, with 16 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,500 employees.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Oil trader Gunvor has decided against signing a contract for oil products bought through tenders from Russia’s troubled Antipinsky refinery, three trading sources told Reuters.

SOCAR Energoresource, a joint venture between Russian lender Sberbank and a group of investors, holds an 80% stake in the refinery, which has debt exceeding USD5 billion and has filed for bankruptcy.

Last week, SOCAR Energoresource sold up to 150,000 tonnes of ultra-low sulphur diesel originating from the Antipinsky refinery and loading via the Baltic port of Primorsk over August-September to Gunvor, through tenders, and up to 30,000 tonnes of gasoline AI-80 for delivery in August via the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga.

Three trading sources familiar with the tenders said that Gunvor has refused to sign a firm deal since then, as SOCAR Energoresource and Gunvor failed to agree on the terms of the contracts.

Gunvor did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for a comment.

A SOCAR Energoresource spokesman declined to comment, Antipinsky refinery did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for a comment.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shareholders of Anadarko Petroleum Corp voted overwhelmingly to sell the company for USD38 billion to rival Occidental Petroleum Corp , ending a short-lived contest that pitted two of the most storied names in the oil industry against one another, said Reuters.

Occidental in May beat out Chevron Corp to grab a major oil industry prize: Anadarko’s nearly quarter million acres in the Permian Basin, the top U.S. shale field, where low-cost output has helped turn the United States into the world’s top oil producer at more than 12 million barrels per day.

Anadarko’s shareholders voted 99% in favor of the deal that gives them USD72.34 per share based on Wednesday’s closing price for Occidental. Investors also voted in a non=binding measure 71% against executive payouts tied to the deal. Anadarko’s top six executives are to receive USD300 million in payouts.

Occidental said immediately after the vote it had closed the transaction, and had named new executives to run Western Midstream Partners LP, Anadarko’s natural gas pipeline business. Its shares rose 2.5% to close at USD47.13.

“We begin our work to integrate our two companies and unlock the significant value of this combination for shareholders,” Occidental Chief Executive Vicki Hollub said in a statement.

Anadarko shares are up 56% from the day before it disclosed merger talks, while Occidental shares are down 30% since its discussions were revealed.

The market’s sour response has dampened enthusiasm for deals. Even with stocks of many shale firms trading at multi-year lows, it may not be enough to spur a buyout spree by the world’s largest oil and gas firms, said Artem Abramov, analyst with Rystad Energy.

“Some super-majors might be waiting for even lower pricing,” Abramov said.

Hollub has been lining up financing and organizing asset sales to fund the deal while battling activist investor Carl Icahn, who wants to replace four Occidental directors and influence the pace of the company’s asset sales.

Hollub avoided her own shareholder vote on the deal by securing a controversial and pricey USD10 billion financing agreement with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Icahn likened the deal to “taking candy from a baby” on Buffett’s part.

Occidental this week sold USD13 billion in bonds to help fund the Anadarko purchase and has proposed selling Anadarko’s Africa assets to Total SA.

It also formed a drilling partnership with Colombia’s state-run oil company Ecopetrol SA to develop part of its Permian shale field for up to USD1.5 billion.

Occidental last week reported a 14% drop in second quarter profit, as costs related to the deal and weaker chemical earnings hit its bottom line.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- QEP Resources (QEP.N) will remain an independent oil and gas producer after ending a half-year process to sell itself without a deal, the company said, deciding instead to work with a rebuffed suitor to identify further cost savings, as per Reuters.

At the start of the year, Paul Singer’s USD38 billion hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, which owns 4.9% of QEP, offered USD2.07 billion for the Denver-based company, saying it was undervalued despite having good acreage in the Permian Basin, the largest U.S. shale oilfield.

Despite running a sale process aimed at soliciting other bids for the company, QEP said it had concluded “the best path to create superior value for our shareholders is to move forward as an independent company." Instead, QEP and Elliott have agreed to work together to identify two new QEP board members and create a five-person committee chaired by Chief Executive Tim Cutt to implement best practices and boost efficiency. The committee will include two current independent directors and the two new board members.

Elliott had been in talks with QEP’s board until very recently about buying the company, but they could not agree on a valuation, according to sources familiar with the matter. QEP is now worth half of what Elliott offered in January.

The hedge fund still believes QEP and its assets are undervalued and could return with a new proposal, one of the sources said.

QEP shares edged higher despite widespread declines in the sector following a 5% drop in WTI crude prices on Wednesday.

The gains were supported by QEP saying that it would reinstate its quarterly dividend of 2 cents per share. It cut its 2019 spending projection by about USD50 million, and raised its 2019 production forecast to between 29.9 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) and 31 million boe, from 28.5 million boe and 30.3 million boe.

U.S. energy mergers and acquisitions have been tepid in 2019 as shareholders have pressured oil and gas companies to cut costs and return cash to them instead of expanding during a period of wild swings in crude and equity prices.

As well as reducing planned capital expenditure this year, QEP said it had slashed its general and administrative expenses by 50% compared with the first quarter.

The S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production index slipped on Tuesday below the level in February 2016, the trough of the last oil price slump.
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