In a joint statement from both companies, Carus Chemical Company of Peru, Illinois, a division of Carus Corporation, has signed a purchase agreement with Industrial Quimica del Nalon (IQN), of Oviedo, Spain, to acquire IQN's permanganate business. " This represents many years of work on both Carus' and IQN's behalf to develop the potassium permanganate market in Europe, and is an important step to help expand Carus' commitment to Europe and the market growth potential for potassium permanganate", said M.Blouke Carus, Chairman of the Board of Carus Corporation.
"With this acquisition, we are realizing the first step of our long term goal of having a major manufacturing position in Europe, to better serve our customers and distributors in the European Union, as well as develop the market potential," said Dr. Aziz Asphahani, President and CEO of Carus Chemical Company.
Rufino Orejas Rodriguez-Arango, Chairman of the Board of IQN, endorsed Carus' intentions to commit additional capital to upgrade the Trubia plant that will help ensure the success of this European potassium permanganate business. "The sale of the potassium permanganate business will enable IQN to more productively focus on its coal tar and naphthalene distillation businesses, in which we have invested significant capital in the past 5 years," said Manuel Gonzalez Cimas, Managing Director of Industrial Quimica del Nalon.
Following due diligence, both companies are confident they will close the
sale and purchase in the next six to eight weeks. The newly created entity will
be called Carus Nalon S.L., a European subsidiary of Carus Corporation. Inga
Carus, Chairperson of the new entity, expressed great optimism for the future of
this new company, based on planned marketing efforts to grow the permanganate
business in Europe, and on the continuation of producing this chemical from a
plant in the European Union.