Frankfurt, Nov 29 - German specialty chemical maker Cognis is in advanced talks with an Asian buyer for its 50 percent stake in Cognis Oleochemicals in Malaysia, its finance head said on Thursday.
"We are now focusing on selling the stake to a strategic buyer," Klaus Edelmann told Reuters in a telephone interview, adding that the potential buyer was from Asia.
"The talks are in quite an advanced stage," he said.
Cognis, controlled by Permira and GS Capital Partners, has said it wants to sell its stake in its 50:50 oleochemicals joint venture with Malaysian plantation firm Golden Hope <GHOP.KL either through a stock market listing or to a strategic buyer.
Cognis Oleochemicals, one of the world's leading manufacturers of oleochemicals, had sales of 553 million euros ($819 million) in 2006. In the nine months to September, the unit's sales rose 8 percent to 450 million euros.
Oleochemicals are chemicals derived from natural oils or fats for use in detergents, laundry softeners and paper chemicals.
Golden Hope has now merged with other Malaysian companies to form Synergy Drive.
Edelmann also said the company could use proceeds from the stake sale for acquisitions to complement its portfolios or to redeem part of its 2.3 billion euros of debt.
"If we look beyond 2008...we could fully repay our floating rate notes," he said, adding that it has about 1.6 billion euros of such notes outstanding.
Cognis recently refinanced its 2 billion euros of debt, allowing the company to save about 74 million euros a year in interest expenses.
As part of the debt refinancing, Cognis cannot redeem its debt for 18 months from the middle of this year.
By 1211 GMT, five-year credit default swaps on Cognis were 30 basis points tighter at 555 basis points, one trader said.
In the cash market, Cognis' 9.5 percent fixed rated bond due 2014 tightened 2.5 basis points and its floating-rate note due 2013 was 1 basis point up.
Edelmann also said the company had started the process to sell its subsidiary, Pulcra Chemicals, which supplies process chemicals to the textile and leather industries.
In 2006, the unit had sales of 258 million euros. It has productions sites in Germany, Turkey, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and the United States.
Cognis on Thursday reported a 2.5 percent rise in nine-month adjusted core profit to 311 million euros as cost cuts and higher prices more than offset rising raw material prices.
Edelmann also said the company expected to suffer net losses for the full year partly because of one-time refinancing costs. Nine-month net loss was 82 million euros.
Excluding one-time effects, net profit rose 16 percent to 21 million euros.
Edelmann said he expected core profit and sales to continue growing next year, despite tougher global economic conditions.