Abu Dhabi - Equity In Borealis.

Under a series of deals signed on Sept. 15, 1997, OeMV sold its 100-owned PCD Polymere to Borealis of Copenhagen, a 50-50 venture between Statoil of Norway and Neste Oy of Finland created in 1994. This made Borealis the largest producer of polyolefins in Europe and put it on a level with Dow Chemical and Montell in the industry's global rankings, with Exxon still in the lead. In return for PCD, OeMV got 25% in Borealis and IPIC obtained the other 25% of Neste's equity for cash. The new Borealis ownership structure was completed on May 4, 1998. PCD's plants in Austria and southern Germany raised Borealis' polyolefins capacity by more than 900,000 tons to well over 3m t/y. Borealis has large plants in Norway, Finland, Sweden, Belgium and Portugal and smaller plants in Germany and France. Borealis also has 40% equity in Abu Dhabi Polymers, with ADNOC holding 60%, which is to have a complex at Ruwais to produce 600,000 t/y of ethylene and 450,000 t/y of HDPE and LLDPE (see DT No. 2).