Dispute over Arkema finances

Swiss investment firm Klesch has accused French speciality chemical company Arkema of misrepresenting the financial character of a part of its business sold to Klesch last year. The company has made a formal request for arbitration and is seeking €310 million (£270 million) in compensation.

In July 2012, Klesch agreed to buy the Arkema vinyls business, encompassing a range of activities brought together under the name Kem One. But it says that in the eight months since, it has found ‘significant gaps’ between the financial information presented by Arkema before the transaction and the information it has now, adding that it would not have struck the deal if it had known about the misrepresentation.

In response, Arkema has refuted all the allegations, which relate exclusively to the upstream part of the business, Kem One SAS – Klesch says that Kem One Innovative Vinyls, the downstream part, operates under satisfactory conditions.