Lotte Chemicals to Sell their Subsidiary in Pakistan to Focus on Core Business

Lotte Chemical will divest non-core overseas businesses to focus on its high-value-added speciality materials business.

In a public disclosure on Jan. 16, the company announced that it will sell its entire 75.01 per cent stake in Lotte Chemical Pakistan Limited (LCPL), a purified terephthalic acid (PTA) production subsidiary in Pakistan, to Lucky Core Industries, a Pakistani chemical company, for approximately 192.4 billion won, or 13 times the acquisition price.

Lotte Chemical intends to use the proceeds from the sale to upgrade its existing petrochemical products such as PE, PP, and PET, as well as expand its speciality chemical business and enter the eco-friendly material business.

Lotte Chemical shut down its PTA line at its Ulsan plant in Korea in the second half of 2020. It has since been producing purified isophthalic acid (PIA) through a facility conversion. It has wholly exited PTA production by selling LCPL to a Pakistani company.

PIA is a raw material used in producing PET, paint, and unsaturated resin. Lotte Chemical's annual PIA production is 520,000 tonnes, placing it first in the global market.

Lotte Chemical announced last year at a press conference that it plans to increase its sales to 50 trillion won by 2030, with high-value-added specialty products and eco-friendly materials accounting for approximately 30 trillion won.