Koppers Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koppers Holdings Inc., has completed the sale of its Specialty Chemicals business in the United Kingdom to ECO-Option (UK) Limited. Koppers has transferred all shares in its Specialty Chemicals business to ECO-Option for an undisclosed consideration. The business under new ownership will trade as KSC (Port Clarence) Limited, as the company says in the press release received by Lesprom Network.
President and CEO Leroy M. Ball commented, "The divestiture of this business represents one more step in our broad restructuring plan that began in 2015 for our Carbon Material and Chemical segment. While the sale price and earnings contribution were not material, fully exiting production activities at the Port Clarence site that we sold in July 2016 is important to reducing future operational risk and re-focusing management on our long-term European manufacturing base located in Nyborg, Denmark. As always, we will continually look for ways to optimize our business portfolio while remaining focused on further strengthening our leadership position in wood treatment technologies."
Koppers previously announced the closure of its two U.K. tar distillation facilities in 2016 as part of its efforts to streamline the cost profile of its Carbon Materials and Chemicals business. As a result of this transaction, the company has fully exited a non-core business that processed commodity-based chemicals in Europe.
Koppers, with corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is an integrated global provider of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals and carbon compounds.
