Zeon carves out acrylic rubber business ahead of Tope sale

Tokyo – Japan’s Zeon Corp. is carving out the acrylic rubber business of its wholly owned subsidiary Tope Corp. ahead of the planned sale of the coatings business to Japanese coatings specialist Natoco Co.

In a 3 Sept statement, Zeon said it established Zeon Chemicals Kurashiki in July to take over the business.

In August, Tope and the new company signed an absorption-type company-split agreement covering the transfer.

Zeon has now begun the statutory procedures required for the transfer, with Zeon Chemicals Kurashiki scheduled to start operations 30 Oct.

The move follows Zeon’s 11 May announcement that it had agreed to sell its 100%-owned Tope subsidiary to Natoco.

The acrylic rubber business will be separated from Tope and retained within the Zeon group before the sale.

Zeon said the acrylic rubber operation has “strong synergies as part of Zeon’s elastomer business” and will therefore continue under the new Zeon subsidiary.

The Japanese group said it planned to further deepen cooperation between the acrylic rubber business and its existing operations, with the aim of “increasing corporate value across the group”.

Acrylic rubber is a speciality rubber offering high heat resistance and is used in automotive components including oil seals and hoses.

Zeon said it operates four acrylic rubber manufacturing sites across Japan, the US and Thailand but did not provide further details.