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Ineos

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INEOS Group Limited
Company typePrivate limited company
IndustryChemicals
Founded1998
FounderJim Ratcliffe
HeadquartersRolle, Switzerland
(Head office)
Lyndhurst, Hampshire, United Kingdom
(Registered office)
Key people
Jim Ratcliffe (CEO & Chairman), Andy Currie (Director), John Reece (Finance Director), Jim Dawson (non-executive Director)
ProductsChemical substances
Petrochemicals
Plastics
RevenueUS$43 billion [1]
2,001,300,000 Euro (2022) Edit this on Wikidata
2,000,600,000 Euro (2022) Edit this on Wikidata
Total assets17,081,400,000 Euro (2021) Edit this on Wikidata
Number of employees
15,000 [1]
Websitehttp://ineos.com

INEOS Group Limited is a privately owned multinational chemicals company consisting of 15 standalone business units, headquartered in Rolle, Switzerland and with its registered office in Lyndhurst, United Kingdom. It is the fourth largest chemicals company in the world measured by revenues (after BASF, Dow Chemical and LyondellBasell) and the largest privately owned company in the United Kingdom.[2]

INEOS is today heavily involved in renewable energy and is one of the world's leading pioneers in the development of generating sustainable energy from waste material.[3]

INEOS reportedly prefers to run operations with minimal head office management, the concept that "work teams" are better suited for handling of the workflow day to day, without middle-management.[4] Jim Ratcliffe is the founder, Chairman and main shareholder.

INEOS was established in 1998 when Jim Ratcliffe bought Inspec’s Ethylene Oxide facility in Antwerp, Belgium.[5] The company grew quickly through the acquisition of commodity chemical businesses from corporate giants such as BP, ICI and BASF. INEOS focussed on buying well invested, cyclical businesses that it could integrate. The cyclicality of commodity chemical businesses makes them unpopular within public ownership. As a private company INEOS is able to take a long-term view of the needs of these businesses, building this cyclicality into its planning.

There have been three distinct phases of INEOS’ growth.[6] The first spanned over ten years, with INEOS acquiring 22 companies between 1998 and 2008. The most notable of these was the purchase of Innovene, the olefins and derivatives and refining subsidiary of BP, in October 2005 for $9 billion[7] and ICI’s commodity chemicals business in 2001. The second phase between 2008 and 2010 saw a period of consolidation as the company tackled the impact of the global recession. As production of consumer goods, cars and construction fell during this period, the company saw sales and earnings reduce. During this period a major competitor LyondellBasell filed for bankruptcy.[8] Some considered a similar fate for INEOS but the company emerged from this period a leaner more efficient organisation having taken additional costs out of its businesses. Since 2011 the company has continued to grow through a series of strategic Joint Ventures, the largest of which was formed with PetroChina, combining INEOS’s Refining interests at Grangemouth, Scotland and Lavéra, France with PetroChina’s access to upstream raw materials.[9] The 50:50 Joint Venture which completed in June 2011 is called Petroineos, In the same month, INEOS and BASF combined Styrenics businesses to form another 50:50 partnership, Styrolution.[10] INEOS growth has continued through this period, expanding production in the USA and China. Most recently INEOS announced a Joint Venture with Solvay bringing together their European ChlorVinyls businesses.[11]

History

INEOS’s heritage is in a number of well known blue chip chemical companies. These include Amoco, BASF, Bayer, Borealis, BP, Degussa, Dow Chemical Company, Enichem, Erdölchemie, Hoechst, ICI, Innovene, Lanxess, Monsanto, Norsk Hydro and Solvay. The company was formed in 1998 to affect a management buyout of the former BP petrochemicals assets in Antwerp, Belgium.[12] Since then, it has expanded by purchasing several other businesses. Several of its divisions formerly belonged to BP, and others have been divested by large companies such as Amoco, BASF, ICI, Dow Chemical, Solvay and UCB, as they have looked to focus more closely on their main product lines. In October 2005 INEOS agreed to purchase Innovene, BP’s olefins and derivatives and refining subsidiary, which had an estimated 2005 turnover of US$25 billion, for $9 billion.[13] The deal, which was completed on 14 December 2005, roughly quadrupled INEOS's turnover, which was previously around $8 billion.

In 2007 INEOS formed a joined venture with Lanxess and created INEOS ABS, comprising Lanxess's activities in Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene production, located in Tarragona. INEOS paid €35 million in a first tranche.[14]

As of late April 2008 INEOS was at the centre of an industrial relations dispute with Unite the Union over pension policies affecting the workforce at its Grangemouth Refinery. The company had taken the decision to close the company's final salary pension scheme to new employees due to the increasingly unmanageable costs associated with its continued operation. It is also claimed by Unite that workers at Grangemouth are paid £6,000 less than workers at other similar facilities.[15] However, David Watt, of the Institute of Directors in Scotland, believes that the average worker at the Grangemouth Refinery plant earns £40,000 per year. This is nearly twice the average in Scotland.[16]

In March 2010 INEOS Healthcare terminated its drug development programme for commercial reasons.

In February 2011 INEOS Bio broke ground on a landmark advanced biofuels facility in Florida. "INEOS Bio’s biorefinery will have the capacity to produce 8 million gallons of ethanol and 6 megawatts (gross) of electricity per year." "The INEOS Bio process can produce ethanol and renewable energy from numerous non-food feedstocks, including construction and municipal solid waste, forestry and agricultural waste." [17]

The Name

INEOS is an acronym of INspec Ethylene Oxide and Specialities, a name derived from their first acquistion in 1998[18] It also stems from one Latin and two Greek words that founder, Jim Ratcliffe, and his two sons found when searching for a company name. "Ineo" is Latin for a new beginning, "Eos" is the Greek goddess of dawn and "neos" means something new and innovative. As a result, the name INEOS represents the "dawn of something new and innovative"[19]

Markets

INEOS provides products for diverse markets including: Fuels and Lubricants (23.3%), Packaging and Food (18.5%) and Construction (16.1%). Other markets include Automotive & Transport, White Goods & Durables, Pharmaceutical & Agrochemical and Textiles.[20] The majority of INEOS’ geographic earnings are distributed across Germany (16.8%), USA (16.1%), UK (12.3%), France (11.6%) and Benelux (10.8%).[20]

Joint Ventures

Styrolution is a 50:50 joint venture between INEOS and BASF formed in 2011. Its global headquarters can be found in Frankfurt, Germany. It has 17 manufacturing sites producing Styrene monomer, Polystyrene, Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene, Styrene-butadiene block copolymers and various copolymer blends.[20]

Petroineos is a refining and trading joint venture between INEOS and PetroChina formed in 2011. It is Europe’s leading independent crude oil refiner, with a turnover of $15 billion. It has two refineries, one in Lavéra, France, and one in Grangemouth, Scotland.[21]

PQ Corporation is a joint venture between INEOS (40%) and The Carlyle Group (60%). It is a global producer of inorganic chemicals, catalysts and engineered glass products.[22]

Most recently, Solvay and INEOS are to create a 50:50 joint venture which will see them combine their ChlorVinyls sites in Europe. This joint venture will become the world’s third largest producer of PVC.[11]

Products

INEOS manufactures and distributes a wide range of petrochemicals, specialty chemicals and oil products:[20]

Business Products
ABS ABS Polymers, SAN Polymers
Barex Barex Resins, Specialized Acrylonitrile-Methyl Acrylate Co-Polymer
Bio Advanced Bio Energy Technology
ChlorVinyls Chloralkali, Chlorine Derivatives, General Chemicals, E-PVC, S-PVC, VCM
Enterprises Brine & Water, Biodiesel, Ethanol, Esters, Sulphur Chemicals, Ammonia / Nitric Acid, Salt, VAM, PVC Compounds
Melamines Melamine formaldehyde resin
Nitriles Acrylonitrile, Acetonitrile, Oxazole, Hydrogen Cyanide, Acetone cyanohydrin, Ammonium Sulphate
Olefins and Polymers Europe Ethylene, Propylene, Butadiene and other C4s, Benzene, Polyethylene (LD/LLDPE, HDPE), Polypropylene and other Aromatics
Olefins and Polymers USA Olefins, High Density Polyethylene, Polypropylene
Oligomers Linear Alpha Olefins (LAO), Polyalpha Olefin (PAO), Polybutene, Specialty Oligomers
Oxide Ethylene Oxide, Ethylene Oxide Derivatives, Ethylidene Norbornene, Glycol, Acetate Esters, Propylene Glycol, Propylene oxide, Oxo-Alcohols
Paraform Formaldehyde, Paraformaldehyde, Hexamethylene Tetramine (HMT), Cyanates
Phenol Phenol, Acetone, Alphamethylstyrene
Styrenics Expandable Polystyrene
Technologies Licenses world class petrochemical technology for: Polyethylene, Polystyrene, Vinyls, Polypropylene, Acrylonitrile, Chlor-Alkali

Controversy

INEOS has been accused by some sources of buying assets then cutting costs through the introduction of new working practices, lower wages, and terminating pension schemes.[15] This could be regarded as controversy, or as the organisation would rather describe it, as a strategy which has ensured several businesses remain viable, saving and creating thousands of jobs in the process.[23]

References

  1. ^ a b "INEOS is a world class producer of Petrochemicals and speciality chemicals". INEOS.com. 1 June 2007. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  2. ^ "Refinery strike: Running on empty". The Economist. 24 April 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  3. ^ "Florida Plant to Produce Advanced Ethanol - WSJ.com". Online.wsj.com. 31 July 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  4. ^ "Big Cut in UK Firms' Carcinogenic Emissions". Ens-newswire.com. 6 March 2002. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  5. ^ "INEOS | Company Structure Information from". ICIS. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  6. ^ Iain Dey in Geneva (12 May 2013). "What Jim Ratcliffe did next". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  7. ^ Catan, Thomas (7 October 2005). "BP to sell Innovene to Ineos in $9bn deal". FT.com. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  8. ^ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/lyondellbasell-us-unit-files-for-bankruptcy/
  9. ^ "PetroChina and INEOS announce plans for new trading and refining JV in Europe". INEOSchlorvinyls.com. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  10. ^ "and INEOS sign joint venture contract for Styrolution - BASF - The Chemical Company - Corporate Website". BASF. 31 May 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  11. ^ a b "Solvay and INEOS join forces to create a world-class PVC producer". Solvay.com. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  12. ^ Migration Temp (12 August 2007). "Ratcliffe, the alchemist". Telegraph. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  13. ^ Catan, Thomas (7 October 2005). "BP to sell Innovene to Ineos in $9bn deal". FT.com. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  14. ^ [1][dead link]
  15. ^ a b Doward, Jamie (27 April 2008). "Drivers are told not to panic buy as strike at oil refinery starts to bite". The Observer. p. 5. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ "'Be realistic' call to petrol workers". BBC News. 22 April 2008. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  17. ^ "INEOS Bio breaks ground on landmark advanced biofuels facility in Florida". Biofuels Digest. 10 February 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  18. ^ http://www.ineosllc.com/pdf/7935bus1.pdf
  19. ^ "Jim's a leader in his field". INEOS.com. 1 July 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  20. ^ a b c d "INEOS is a world class producer of Petrochemicals and speciality chemicals". INEOS.com. 1 June 2007. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  21. ^ "PetroChina completes $1bn Ineos deal". Telegraph. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  22. ^ "The Carlyle Group and INEOS Agree to Combine PQ Corporation and INEOS Silicas; Combination will Create Global Producer of Specialty Chemical Products | The Carlyle Group". Carlyle.com. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  23. ^ "INEOS Financing on Bioenergy Plant Will Create Almost 400 Jobs". U.S. Green Technology. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
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