Last year DSM already sold the resins and coatings division to the German chemical company Covestro and the two remaining materials divisions were put up for sale. The company is going to focus entirely on nutrition and health, accounting for 80% of sales.
Protective Materials, known for the high-performance fibre Dyneema, was sold last month for €1.3 billion to the American company Avient. This division employs more than a thousand people worldwide, a third of them in the Netherlands.
The Engineering Materials division, which specialises in sustainable thermoplastics for the automotive and electronics industries, among others, is substantially larger. It employs more than 21,000 people worldwide, of whom 2,100 in the Netherlands. News agency Bloomberg expects the sale to generate around €3 billion.
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