Celanese aims to leverage power of elastomer brands

Dallas, Texas – Celanese Corp. aims to leverage the power of the brand names of the thermoplastics and elastomer business es it is acquiring from DuPont, Celanese officials say.

As announced 18 Feb, Dallas-based Celanese is to acquire thermoplastics and elastomers units within DuPont’s Mobility & Materials (M&M) business for $11.0 billion.

The deal includes Hytrel thermoplastic polyester elastomers, Vamac ethylene acrylic elastomers as well as Zytel polyamides and Crastin polybutylene terephthalate. 

Customers “don't ask for the chemical name: they ask for the DuPont brand,” Scott Richardson, executive vice president & CFO, Celanese Corp. said in a analysts call* about the acquisition.

“Even in the early days of having Santoprene in the portfolio, we felt the power of that,” Richardson added with reference to Celanese’s recent acquisition of the thermoplastic vulcanisates (TPVs) business from ExxonMobil.  

Combining that brand equity with “the way that we drive projects and the deep customer relationships that we have… gives us really good revenue-synergy optimisation opportunities,” the Celanese executive added.

With Hytrel, Celanese is now acquiring the leader in copolyester elastomers, alongside owning Santoprene, the leader in TPVs, according to Thomas Kelly senior VP, engineered materials & corporate strategy development,

“These [materials] have applications well beyond auto, into medical, other applications. So, we are really excited to have what are the two biggest leaders in the high-value elastomer space,” stated Kelly.

*Comments from transcript of the Celanese conference call produced by Factset.