20-06-2017

Umicore buys automotive and stationary DeNOx business areas from Topsoe

Today, Topsoe announced that it has sold its automotive and stationary DeNOx business areas to Umicore. The agreement includes all employees and all technologies, intellectual property rights, and production and R&D facilities belonging to the two business areas in Denmark, USA, China, and Brazil. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be finalized around year-end.

“The agreement is in line with our strategic objective to be present in niche markets where we aim to be among the top 3 players. As the automotive and stationary DeNOx markets have evolved, that was no longer a realistic prospect for us, and we have acted on that. It is highly unusual for us to sell parts of our business, but as a top 3 player within automotive catalysts, Umicore is better suited to continue the development and marketing of the world-leading stationary and automotive DeNOx products, we have developed,” says Bjerne S. Clausen, President & CEO, Topsoe.

“With the financial headroom we achieve with this agreement, we will sharpen our focus on developing sustainable solutions that break new ground, and expanding our core business within catalysts and technology for the petrochemical and refining industries. Based on our strong core competencies, we will continue to support our customers’ businesses with increasingly energy-efficient, clean, and integrated solutions,” Bjerne S. Clausen adds.

280 Topsoe employees are transferred to Umicore.

“We are delighted to welcome so many highly skilled employees from Topsoe. They will play an important role in realizing our strategic goals in the future. With this agreement, we acquire state-of-the-art emissions control technologies and production facilities. These are an excellent addition to our extensive catalysts portfolio for clean air applications and make our offering to customers even more complete,” says Pascal Reymondet, Executive Vice-President Catalysis, Umicore.

The contract value is DKK 900 million plus an earn-out. The agreement will entail an impairment loss in Topsoe’s financial statements for the current financial year of approximately DKK 400 million before tax, but will have a positive cash effect from the sale proceeds.