La Seda cuts stake in Portuguese terephthalic acid plant

Leading European PET producer La Seda de Barcelona has reduced its shareholding in a major upstream plant construction project in Portugal to a stake of just 41%.

Previously, La Seda based in Barcelona, Spain, owned 51% of the?00m scheme to construct a 700,000 tpa purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant at Sines, Portugal which is due to be completed at the end of this year.

Now, the Spanish group says it has agreed to relinquish its controlling interest in the Artenius Sines project, selling shares to three Portuguese investment funds. The buyers are ECS Capital, through its Fundo Recupera?ao, Caixa Capital and InovCapital with stakes amounting to 29%, 19% and 11% respectively.

As a result of the deal, the Artenius Sines shareholder structure has been strengthened through a resource injection worth Euro 96.9 million, said La Seda's group chairman JoséLuis Morlanes in a statement.

La Seda decided in 2006 to install the PTA plant in Sines, strategically located close to the port which gives access to the western coast of Europe (including the UK), to the West African coast and to the whole of the Mediterranean arc.

The scheme was originally launched in 2008, but construction was later suspended for several months in the face of La Seda group's financial difficulties.

In January this year, La Seda announced it had secured financing for the project to the tune of?71m from providers led by the Portuguese banking group Caixa Geral de Depósitos, through its offshoot Caixa Banco de Investimento.

The deal provides backing for the new Sines PTA plant's viability and profitability in the form of 15 year financing. The project is aimed at covering a 500,000 tpa PTA shortfall in Europe, which has been importing the PET raw material from Asia.

La Seda's Portuguese plant is not scheduled to be in commercial production until the second half of 2011, according to the group.