Henkel Acquires Most of Dexter's Specialty Polymers

Dexter Corp. will sell most of its specialty polymers business to Loctite Corp., a US affiliate of Henkel KGaA (Duesseldorf, Germany) for $400 million. The business includes polymers for the manufacture and assembly of electronic components as well as industrial adhesives.

Dexter's electronic Materials, adhesives and polymer systems businesses had net sales of $236 million in 1999. Dexter's coatings business, the only part of Dexter's specialty polymers segment not being sold to Loctite, had net sales of $47 million in 1999.

Henkel is a worldwide power in adhesives, and a leading European supplier of detergents and cosmetic products. Cognis, the recently carved-out chemicals business, is the world's leading producer of Oleochemicals. The company, which has more than 56,600 employees, generated sales of EU 3 billion Euro in the first quarter 2000.

Edited by Alan S. Brown