Ashland and Sud-Chemie Agree on Expanded Joint Venture Serving Foundry Chemical Sector

Ashland Inc. with headquarters in Covington, Ky. (USA), and Sud-Chemie AG, Munich (Germany), have reached contractual agreement on the formation of a global joint venture to merge their business activities in the foundry chemicals sector. The joint venture will be known as ASK Chemicals GmbH and will be headquartered in Hilden, Germany. Sud-Chemie and Ashland will each hold a fifty-percent share in ASK Chemicals, while the operational management leadership will lie with Sud-Chemie.

The joint venture will employ approximately 1,300 people. Were it to have been in operation through the first six months of calendar 2010, it would have generated total sales of about Euro 243 million, or approximately $303 million – numbers reflecting that while the global foundry market saw moderate activity in Q1, it gained considerable momentum in Q2.

Sud-Chemie and Ashland are currently partners in Ashland-Sudchemie-Kernfest GmbH, a foundry chemicals company operating successfully in Europe since its formation in 1970. The new global joint venture will be comprised of three parts: Ashland-Sudchemie-Kernfest; substantially all assets and employees of Sud-Chemie´s business unit for Foundry Products and Specialty Resins; and Ashland’s Casting Solutions business unit. The transaction is expected to close toward the end of calendar year 2010, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory reviews.