June 21, 2011 Bloomberg

Mitsubishi Gas May Consider Taminco Purchase If Price Lowered

Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co. said it would consider buying Taminco, a Belgian maker of amine chemicals, if owner CVC Capital Partners Ltd. lowers the price.

Mitsubishi Gas Chemical, based in Tokyo, is interested in Taminco as it seeks to expand amine operations, said Atsushi Shibata, a spokesman for the Japanese gas maker. Mitsubishi Gas and Taminco already operate a methylamines joint venture in China.

2010/10/30　三菱ガス化学、中国のメチルアミン事業でTamincoと提携　

Lanxess AG is weighing a bid that values Taminco at about 1 billion euros ($1.43 billion), three people with knowledge of the talks said June 1.

"We're not considering buying the company because the price is too high," Shibata said in a phone interview today.

Taminco makes amines used in fertilizer, food and consumer goods and has attracted proposals from suitors in the Middle East and Asia, two people with knowledge of the situation said this week. Leverkusen, Germany-based Lanxess is seeking to diversify away from synthetic rubber and the cyclical car industry, the three people familiar with the talks said June 1.

Potential bidders are studying Taminco's books and records in preparation for a possible offer, said one of the people, who declined to be identified because the sale process is private. London-based private equity firm CVC is working with Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to assess interest in the business, three people said in April.

For Lanxess, the purchase would help Chief Executive Officer Axel Heitmann achieve a goal of boosting earnings to about 1.4 billion euros in the medium-term.

Taminco Chief Executive Officer Laurent Lenoir said in March that he gets regular calls from suitors after the cancellation of a $600 million initial public offering last year.