Investments: BASF sells Chinese BDO jv shares to Singapore’s Verde Chemical; PureCycle raises US$27 mn from sale of bonds

German chemical firm BASF has divested its shares in the joint venture companies, BASF Markor Chemical Manufacturing (Xinjiang) Co and Markor Meiou Chemical (Xinjiang) Co in Korla, China, to Verde Chemical Singapore Pte.

Following approval by the relevant authorities, the transaction was completed recently. Both parties have agreed not to disclose financial details of the transaction.

BASF had said in February 2024 it would accelerate its divestment from the joint ventures which manufacture the industrial chemical butanediol (BDO).

Plans to sell the shares had already been announced by BASF in 2023 in response to commercial and environmental concerns, plus the local partner of the two joint ventures in China's Xinjiang region was alleged to have participated in rights abuses against the local Uyghur minority.

Despite the controversy surrounding the Xinjiang plants, BASF has been ramping up its presence in China while production costs in Europe are high.

The German group is in the process of building a new EUR10-billion chemical complex in the southern province of Guangdong.

Verde Chemical Singapore, a company registered in Singapore, is majority controlled by Verde Ventures SGP, also a Singapore registered company. The company is currently establishing an intellectual property and license centre in Singapore to commercialise technologies and with the support of minority shareholder GSS Energy Limited, leverage such technologies to support manufacturing in Southeast Asia.

In other news, PureCycle Technologies says it has successfully raised approximately US$27 million in gross proceeds through the sale of around US$30 million in Southern Ohio Port Authority Tax-Exempt Facility Revenue Bonds.

Additionally, PureCycle retains an opportunity to leverage roughly US$87 million in additional saleable bonds.

This strategic financial move is set to further enhance the company's development and deployment of its pioneering recycling processes.

The capital raised is expected to assist PureCycle in its efforts to continue bringing its patented dissolution recycling process to market. 

PureCycle Technologies holds a global license for the only patented dissolution recycling technology, developed by The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G), that is designed to transform polypropylene plastic waste into a continuously renewable resource. The purification process removes colour, odour, and other impurities the resin that can be recycled and reused multiple times, it adds.

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