Solvay completes spin-out of specialty chemicals into new company Syensqo

Solvay has completed carving out its specialty chemical activities into a new company named Syensqo. Shareholders voted Dec. 8 to split the group into separate companies. Syensqo began trading on the Euronext Brussels and Euronext Paris stock markets Dec. 11. With a market value of about $10 billion, the newly formed company has about $8.5 billion in annual sales and 13,000 employees. It makes products such as adhesives, fragrances, and specialty polymers. Syensqo is led by Ilham Kadri, Solvay’s former CEO. Solvay’s new CEO is Philippe Kehren, former head of its soda ash business. Solvay now has annual sales of about $6 billion and 9,000 employees; its key product will continue to be soda ash. In an indication that it has ambitions for growth, the firm has partnered with the Saudi energy and water company Enowa to build what it says will be the world’s first carbon-neutral synthetic soda ash plant, in Neom, Saudi Arabia.