Catalyst business becomes highly sought after and Shell may actually get sold this time.
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I agree with reply about pay. Although I’m not understanding why the sale of Ecovyst’s 50% JV in Zeolyst to Technip (Shell is other 50% of that JV) is an indicator that Shell would sell SC&T. Could you elaborate on why you think this would be a next step? Technip and Shell have a strong relationship across several sectors and it’s growing. I would think that Technip considered Shell remaining as the JV partner when they agreed to purchase the 50% from Ecovyst. For $500 million; it seems they valued the Shell partnership. It’s difficult to see the JV being worth $500 million otherwise. Technip buying into adsorbents, aromatic catalyst and hydro cracking catalyst without Shell IP would put them in a difficult spot since they don’t have any of that IP on their own. Uncertainty around who would possibly buy it would lower the value. Our IP makes Zeolyst’s most lucrative products. Technip should have wanted to gain access to that and not another unknown buyer stepping in.
I wouldn’t say “wonderful.” It’s more likely that whoever would buy SC&T would pay much lower than current pay scale after the acquisition. Catalyst companies pay the lowest of downstream sector. If they’re connected to a big integrated company like SC&T (Shell), ART (Chevron), or Exxon C&T, they pay more relative to pure catalyst companies like Topsoe or Clariant. But that’s only a few potential suitors. BASF, Technip, Albemarle, Topsoe would all pay trash. I didn’t mention UOP because the just bought JM and are likely done with acquisition for a while. High pay with uncertainty is a difficult combination and makes sense sometimes.
What is PQ?
Wonderful if that happens. No more wave after wave of uncertainty and high frequency reorgs