Written on 18.11.2014 - Industry
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KUWAIT: Dow reducing equity in Kuwaiti JVs; raises divestiture target to USD 7 billion

Dow Chemical plans to reconfigure and reduce its equity base in the MEGlobal and Greater Equate joint ventures, including The Kuwait Olefins Co. (TKOC) and The Kuwait Styrene Co. (TKSC).

“We have been reviewing every aspect of our joint venture portfolio,” said Dow Chairman and Chief Executive Andrew N. Liveris. “As a result of that analysis, we plan to reduce our equity position in MEGlobal and Equate. This strategic action allows us to redeploy capital to more strategic purposes, while still maintaining our commitment to these industry-leading joint ventures, which will continue to be an integral component of our strategy to be low-cost and integrated in key products.”

MEGlobal, a joint venture of Dow and Petrochemical Industries Co. (PIC) of Kuwait, is headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and produces and markets over 2.5-million t/y of ethylene glycol (EG).

Equate operates an integrated complex producing more than 5-million t/y of petrochemicals, including ethylene, polyethylene and EG.

TKOC is a joint venture between Dow, PIC, Boubyan Petrochemical Co. and Qurain Petrochemical Industries Co.

Equate is the sole operator of Greater Equate, which includes TKOC, TKSC and Kuwait Paraxylene Production Co., under one fully integrated operational umbrella at Kuwait’s Shuaiba Industrial Area.

Dow, noting that it will retain a “substantial stake” in these long-term partnerships, said it expects these transactions to be finalized by the middle of 2015.

Source: Weekly "PetroChemical News", Durham, NC, USA; 17 Nov 2014
(Syed Rashid Ali, Karachi, Pakistan)