Eastman buys Solutia

Solutia, a performance material and specialty chemical company based in St. Louis, Mo., was spun off from Monsanto in 1997, struggled with legacy liabilities until it filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in 2003, emerged from bankruptcy in 2008 and earned $243 million in 2011. The business goes into its next transformation in 2012, as it merges with Eastman Chemical Company, Kingsport, Tenn., after Eastman signed an agreement to purchase Solutia in a transaction valued at $4.7 billion. Last year, 43 percent of Solutia’s sales came from polyvinyl butyral film used in safety glass and vinyl acetate used to encapsulate photovoltaic cells. Another 43 percent of its sales were generated by Solutia’s technical specialties business. Eastman purchased benzoate plasticizer specialist Genovique Specialties in 2010 and plasticizer and acetic acid maker Sterling Chemicals in 2011.