France’s Kem One Files For Bankruptcy

Kem One, the polyvinyl chloride producer formerly owned by Arkema, has filed for the European equivalent of bankruptcy. The firm says it will continue to operate normally during bankruptcy proceedings. Kem One’s new owner, the Swiss investment firm Klesch Group, recently disclosed that it is seeking $400 million in damages from Arkema for allegedly misrepresenting the business’s finances prior to the sale. Kem One says it is looking to Arkema and Total, its main raw material supplier, “to find sustainable solutions” to its financial problems. Kem One has 1,300 employees and seven plants across France. Arkema maintains that the business was in fine financial health at the time of the sale. It blames the problem on Klesch’s decision to separate the PVC business from a business in downstream vinyl products and its failure to put in place promised funding and guarantees.