Sasol Plans Surfactants Sale

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Reversing a strategy embarked upon less than five years ago, Sasol has decided to divest its olefins and surfactants (O&S) business, which it entered when it acquired Condea in March 2001. Any sale would exclude the business's polyethylene comonomers activities in South Africa.

Sasol acquired Condea--whose roots go back to the detergent alcohols operations of the oil company Conoco--from Germany's RWE DEA for roughly $1.5 billion. Most of Condea was shaped into Sasol O&S, which has production in the U.S., Europe, and South Africa. A smaller part of Condea was folded into Sasol Solvents, a global solvents business that will be retained by Sasol.

In the first half of fiscal 2005, which ended on Dec. 31, 2004, the O&S division showed an operating loss of $20 million on sales of $1.37 billion. The division accounts for 26% of Sasol's overall sales.

"Since the acquisition, substantial success has been achieved in reducing costs and improving the productivity at Sasol O&S," says Sasol Deputy Chief Executive Trevor Munday.

However, he points out that the company decided in 2003 to retain only those chemical businesses that could leverage the company's technology or secure integrated and cost-competitive feedstock positions. O&S has not been able to accomplish this, he says. After the sale, the firm will still have chemical businesses in solvents, polymers, and fertilizers.

Meanwhile, Sasol has decided to expand internationally its gas-to-liquids fuel technology and, possibly at a later stage, its coal-to-liquids technology, building on its historic strengths in Fischer-Tropsch chemistry. Proceeds from the surfactants sale will help fund this effort.

According to Munday, Sasol has already received offers for the business. Sasol has appointed Deutsche Bank as adviser on the sale.