Clariant and SABIC have agreed to temporarily suspend the discussions on the intended business combination High Performance Materials (HPM), consisting of Clariant’s Additives and high value Masterbatches and parts of SABIC’s Specialties business.

Given the current market conditions, both parties have decided that temporarily suspending the negotiations is in the best interests of the respective shareholders of both companies.

As part of the portfolio upgrade announced in September 2018, Clariant will continue with the divestment of the pigments business and has decided to also divest the entire Masterbatches business including both, standard and high value Masterbatches. These divestments are expected to be concluded unchanged by end 2020.

The proceeds from the divestments will be used to invest in innovations and technological applications within the core Business Areas, to strengthen Clariant’s balance sheet and to return capital to shareholders.

The new Clariant will benefit from a stronger focus on differentiated, customer-specific products and offerings with attractive growth prospects and above average value potential. With this more streamlined portfolio structure Clariant will be better able to intensify the focus on customer experience and fast, reliable customer fulfillment, as well as on the development of innovative and sustainable products and applications. This will generate a competitive advantage for customers and hence enable Clariant to realize above-market growth, higher profitability and stronger cash generation.