RIL to buy BP's Malaysian petrochemical plant for $230 mn

Reliance Industries has agreed to buy BP Plc's Malaysian petrochemical plant for $230 million, the British energy firm said. The all-cash deal is planned to be completed in 2012, BP said in a statement.

Reliance Industries has agreed to buy BP Plc's Malaysian petrochemical plant for $230 million, the British energy firm said.

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BP said, "It has agreed to sell all its interests in purified terephthalic acid (PTA) production in Malaysia to Reliance Global Holdings Pvt Ltd (a unit of RIL)."

The RIL unit will take over BP's 100% equity in BP Chemicals (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (BPCM), located at Kuantan on the east coast of Malaysia.

The all-cash deal is planned to be completed in 2012, BP said in a statement.

James Yim, Head of BP's aromatics business in Asia, said, "This is an efficient plant with a good market position in the region. RECRON Malaysia, part of the Reliance Group, is already our largest customer in Malaysia and RIL is a significant feedstock supplier at Kuantan, so Reliance is a natural owner of this plant."

Nick Elmslie, Chief Executive of BP Petrochemicals said, "BP has a major, global PTA business, with around one fifth of global PTA production capacity and a track record of leading technology.

"We will continue to concentrate our PTA strategy on deploying new technologies into high growth markets like China where we are in the middle of a considerable expansion programme, and in OECD markets where our technology gives us an advantage and high utilization rates."

All current staff of BPCM are expected to transfer to the new owners under equivalent terms and conditions.

BP said its acetic acid manufacturing and marketing business in Malaysia is unaffected by this sale.

BPCM's PTA plant, commissioned in 1996, has nameplate production capacity of 610,000 tonnes per year.

BP's current net global PTA capacity is 7.5 million tonnes per year from eight sites in the US, Belgium, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan. The largest is at Zhuhai, China with capacity of 1.5 million tonnes.