Epoch 6

Focusing on specialty chemicals

Concentration of the business begins in the 90s. Specialty chemicals and Pergo emerge as the most promising areas for future development. Numerous businesses are sold off, including decorative laminate, and the biotechnology business is spun off to the stock market (1999).

When Pergo meets tough competition after several years of rapid growth, the Group faces a new fork in the road – not unlike the one that led to listing on the stock exchange 30 years before. This time, after a period of turbulence among the owners, the Board decides to list Pergo AB and to sell Perstorp AB, as a purely chemical company, to the venture capital company Industri Kapital (2001).

A petrochemical center

Industri Kapital, which had previously acquired Neste Oxo, combines this business with the Perstorp Group. The Oxo business is part of a petrochemical center built in the 60s in Stenungsund, north of Göteborg. The combination entails a specialty chemicals corporation with a strong technology base, downstream refinement and the resources needed to work close to customers worldwide.

Rapeseed and satellites

Perstorp has since then continued to develop rapidly, making some of the largest investments in the company’s history. These include a plant for rapeseed methyl ester (RME), an environmentally adapted product used in diesel fuel or as a fuel on its own.

The thermoset business, dating back to 1918, has been sold and all that remains in the field of plastics are the highly advanced composites used in the aerospace industry, e.g. in satellite structures.

In time for the company’s 125th anniversary, the French venture capital company PAI acquires the Group. With the new owners supporting Perstorp’s growth strategy and major investments in R&D and production, the specialty chemicals company Perstorp is well prepared to continue creating "winning formulas" for the global markets of the 21st century.

"We’re going to be a world-class specialty chemicals Group – and we won’t settle for less!"
Lennart Holm, President.