Arkema

Arkema was created when French oil major Total restructured its chemicals business. The restructuring was a gradual process that began many years earlier:

1850: Creation of The Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Co. by five Philadelphia Quakers.[4]
1957: The Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Co. changed its name to Pennsalt Chemicals Corp.[4]
1969: Wallace and Tiernan Inc. merged into Pennsalt Chemicals Corp, forming Pennwalt Corp.[4]
1971: Creation of Aquitaine Total Organico (ATO), a joint Elf-Total subsidiary. Creation of Produits Chimiques Ugine Kuhlmann (PCUK).
1973: Creation of ATO Chimie.
1980: Creation of Chloé Chimie (40% Elf Aquitaine, 40% Total and 20% Rhône-Poulenc).
1983: Creation of Atochem - Chemical production in France is reorganized around Atochem, a wholly owned Elf Aquitaine subsidiary incorporating the activities of ATO Chimie, Chloé Chimie and most of PCUK.
1989: Atochem North America Inc. formed from the merger of Pennwalt Corp., M&T Chemicals, and Atochem Inc.[4]
1990: Chemical production is again reorganized in France: Orkem's petrochemicals, styrenics, fertilizers and acrylics businesses are integrated into Atochem, while specialties (resin and paint) move to Total. Acquisition of Montedison's organic peroxide business.
1992: Atochem becomes Elf Atochem.
2000: Creation of Atofina by merging TotalFina and Elf's chemical businesses following the two companies’ 1999 merger.
2004: Creation of Arkema on October 1.
2006: Arkema IPO on the Paris Bourse on May 18 [5]
2007: Arkema sells its agrochemical activities (CEREXAGRI)[6] and its formaldehyde activities [7]
2007: Arkema acquires Coatex company (specialty acrylic polymers)
2010: Arkema acquires acrylic Dow assets in the US [8]
2011: Arkema acquires Total coating resins (Cray Valley and Sartomer)[9]
2011 : in June, Arkema joined the CAC Next 20 French stock market index.[10]
2012: Arkema acquires Chinese Company Hipro Polymers (producer of bio-Polyamides) and Casda Biomaterials (producer of plant raw materials)[11]
2012 : in July, Arkema sold for 1 symbolic euro its vinyl products business segment to the Klesch group for reasons of profitability,[12] but also to recenter its operations exclusively on specialty chemicals. As part of this divestment, Arkema made a 100 million euro cash payment to the Klesch group and took on debts amounting to 470 million euros to help revive the activity. In response to fears of redundancy and to protests from employees at a number of production sites, the trade unions negotiated, with the Arkema management, industrial and social guarantees as well as support measures designed to protect the rights of employees should the Klesch group implement redundancies following their take-over of the vinyl products activities. Hence two trust funds of €20 M were set up to secure compensation payments and the rights of employees of the companies that were sold off.[13]
2012 : as part of its strategic refocusing on specialty chemicals, Arkema acquired a new visual identity as well as a new signature "Innovative Chemistry".[14]
2015 : in February the company finalized the purchase of Bostik from Total S.A..[15] The company also joined CJ Group of South Korea to invest in the manufacture of L-methionine in Malaysia.[16]
2017 : During Hurricane Harvey, some organic peroxides burned in the Arkema Crosby TX plant, causing a 1.5 mile evacuation zone around the site.[17]

Since Arkema sold its Vinyl product segment in July 2012, Arkema reorganized its activities into three business segments: High Performance Materials, Industrial Specialties and Coating Solutions. Each of these segments represent one third of Arkema's turnover.[18]

High Performance Materials

High Performance Materials segment gathers four high value added product lines: Specialty polyamides, Fluoropolymers (PVDF), molecular sieves for filtration and adsorption and organic peroxides.

Its flagship brands are Rilsan (polyamide 11), Luperox(Organic Peroxide), Kynar (PVDF), Siliporite (Molecular Sieves).[19]

Usine Arkema de Pierre Bénite

Research and development spending totaled roughly 150 million euros, with half allocated to “green chemistry.” Arkema employs more than 1,200 researchers, whose work focuses on two main areas: ultra-high performance polymers and sustainable development solutions.

Arkema has made sustainable development a central focus of its R&D strategy, introducing a broad array of innovative materials to help customers reduce their energy use, increasing its use of renewable feedstock, developing nanostructured materials and devising the processes of the future.[32]

Arkema generates sales of €8,8 billion, broken down as follows:[12]

• High Performance materials, 45%.
• Industrial Specialties, 31%.
• Coating Solutions, 24%.

Arkema's net debt in 2018 is €1 billion.[33]

As of 31 December 2010, the major stockholders of Arkema (owning at least 5% of capital declared to AMF) were Greenlight Capital (5,5%), Dodge & Cox (5.2%), Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (10%).[34]

Since January 1, 2012, the level of 5% reported to AMF was passed by:

• FMR LLC (Fidelity Management & Research): declares having +5% of Arkema capital (August 23, 2012);[35]
• Groupe Bruxelles Lambert: sold all its shares in the capital (March 14, 2012);[36]
• Individual shareholders: 94.0% ;
• Group employees : 5,5% ;

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arkema.

• Official website