PRESS: Owners may sell 100% in Russia’s Sayanskhimplast

MOSCOW, Jun 10 (PRIME) -- The shareholders of Russia’s largest polyvinylchloride (PVC) producer Sayanskhimplast are considering the possibility of selling 100% in the company as one of strategic options, the search for a buyer has been going on since spring, business daily Kommersant reported Friday.

The company’s PVC production capacity is 280,000 tonnes per year, which accounted for 27% of the Russian market in 2015. Sayanskhimplast also occupies 14% of the country’s caustic soda market, owns the Angarsk-Sayansk ethylene pipeline and has a possibility to construct own ethylene production capacities, Kommersant reported citing the company’s presentation.

But the company previously suspended its PVC production indefinitely as its sole supplier of ethylene – oil major Rosneft’s Angarsk Polymer Plant – stopped supplies due to a malfunction in a compressor unit. The Angarsk Polymer Plant will restart operation no earlier than in July, so the sale of Sayanskhimplast is the only reasonable option, while Rosneft is the only possible contender for the asset, market participants told the daily.

The possible price of the company is unclear as it depends on agreements on ethylene supplies and on the price of these supplies, experts told Kommersant.

A representative of Rosneft declined to comment.

Kommersant also reported that a pipeline from Kovykta to Sayansk could become a solution for ethylene problems of Sayanskhimplast. Previously, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev promised to order gas giant Gazprom and the government to study the option.

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