Trinseo Makes Second Attempt To Go Public

Trinseo is making a second attempt at becoming a public company. The polymers producer has filed a prospectus with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering (IPO) of stock worth $200 million.

Once known as Styron, Trinseo is a collection of polymer operations that Dow Chemical sold to the private equity firm Bain Capital in 2010. Trinseo had filed for a $400 million IPO in 2011 but withdrew its prospectus two years later.

Trinseo makes acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene resins, synthetic rubber, latex, and polycarbonate. It is also partners with Chevron Phillips Chemical in the polystyrene joint venture Americas Styrenics. Trinseo lost $22 million on $5.3 billion in sales last year, largely because of financing costs and weakness in the polycarbonate business.

The company raised $1.3 billion in a junk-bond offering last year, leaving it with an ample level of high-interest-rate debt. When Trinseo issued the new bonds, Moody’s analyst John Rogers rated them below investment grade. He lowered the rating later in the year because of polymer price volatility and weak demand.

In its SEC filing, Trinseo says it will use the proceeds from the stock offering to pay down debt.

The company is trying to focus on its latex and synthetic rubber businesses, which have been more profitable than styrenics or polycarbonate. It recently acquired rubber capacity from Japan’s JSR at a plant the companies shared in Germany. It is also expanding latex capacity in China. “I am cautiously optimistic for a better 2014,” CEO Christopher D. Pappas said earlier this month.