Agreement on Acquisition of BASF Acrylic-based Modifier Business

Kaneka Belgium N.V. (Westerlo, Belgium; President: Masaaki Kimura; hereinafter “Kaneka Belgium”), a subsidiary of Kaneka Corporation (Osaka, Japan; President: Kimikazu Sugawara) has reached an agreement on acquiring the acrylic-based modifier* business of BASF SE (Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany; Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors: Kurt Bock; hereinafter “BASF”) and signed a contract for the transfer of assets on December 4th. The asset transfer contract covers the intangible assets and the inventory related to this business, but there will be no transfer of production facilities or personnel. The acrylic-based modifiers following the acquisition are scheduled to be produced at Kaneka Belgium and/or its subsidiary, Kaneka Modifiers Deutschland GmbH (Wesseling, Germany; President: Masaaki Kimura).

Approval from the relevant antitrust authorities will be required for this acquisition due to the European Union Competition Law.
*Acrylic-based modifiers are used as impact modifiers and processing aids for PVC and engineering plastics.

This contract was concluded as a result of a match in intentions between BASF positioning its acrylic-based PVC modifier business as a non-core business whilst Kaneka positions the modifier business as a core business. Kaneka intends to actively move ahead with global expansion, and further strengthen its acrylic-based modifier business.

With this acquisition from BASF, following the business acquisition from Evonik in 2011, Kaneka Belgium strengthens its acrylic-based modifier business in Europe.