Significant Events
Significant Events in the Fiscal Year
Here, you'll find recent key events relating to our share price.
Acquisitions
Last year, WACKER expanded its product portfolio by acquiring full ownership of Air Products Polymers (APP) and Wacker Polymer Systems (WPS), its two former joint ventures with Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. By year-end 2008, WACKER had fully integrated APP into the Group. Its sales, expenditures and earnings were thus integrated into our income statement. The assets and debts that were acquired also impacted our balance sheet.
In June 2010, WACKER acquired the Norwegian FESIL Group’s silicon-metal production site in Holla (near Trondheim). Under the terms of the transaction, WACKER takes over all of FESIL’s production facilities in Holla, including the related real estate.
Silicon metal is one of WACKER’s most important raw materials and is needed for the production of silicones and hyperpure polysilicon. Holla Metall’s production capacity is around 50,000 metric tons of silicon metal per year, which corresponds to about one third of WACKER’s current annual needs.
Divestitures
In fall 2008, WACKER sold its PIOLOFORM® brand to Kuraray, a Japanese polymer manufacturer. Until their divestiture, PIOLOFORM® products generated sales in the lower double-digit million range for WACKER POLYMERS. The divestiture was motivated by limited industrial growth opportunities for polyvinyl butyrals.
At the end of 2010, WACKER sold its 50-percent share in Planar Solutions, a joint venture that was part of WACKER SILICONES and was consolidated using the equity method. FUJIFILM Electronic Materials acquired WACKER’s share in this producer of semiconductor slurries – a business that is not a core WACKER competency.
Investment Decisions
In October 2008, WACKER decided to further expand its polysilicon production capacity. With a nominal capacity of 10,000 metric tons per year, “Expansion Stage 9” is to be built at our Nünchritz site. Capital expenditures will amount to around €760 million. Burghausen’s “Expansion Stage 8” – already under construction – is to be extended from 7,000 to 10,000 metric tons per year. WACKER is investing around €100 million here. At WACKER POLYSILICON, sales rose by a greater than expected amount, as initial quantities from “Expansion Stage 7” were sold ahead of schedule.
In December 2010, WACKER decided to build a new and fully integrated polysilicon production site near the city of Cleveland, Tennessee (USA). With an annual capacity of 15,000 metric tons, the production complex will be built on a property acquired by WACKER early 2009. In Cleveland, WACKER will build facilities that are based on closed-loop material recycling for the entire polysilicon-production supply chain. The new site’s completion is expected at the end of 2013. The Group has budgeted investments of some €1.1 billion for this expansion of its production capacities.