Air Products Acquires Korea Industrial Gases Ltd.

Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (Allentown, PA), an industrial gas and chemical producer, has acquired the remaining 51.1% of shares in Korea Industrial Gases Ltd. (KIG), the largest industrial gas company in Korea. Air Products had previously owned just under 50% of KIG shares. As a result of the acquisition, KIG becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Air Products. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

KIG is a full service industrial gas company with a broad product portfolio supplying specialty gases, liquid/bulk, pipeline/onsite, and non-cryogenic units to the Korean marketplace. The majority of the company's customer base is in the chemical process industries, electronics, metals, and merchant markets.

KIG has liquid plant and pipeline franchises in three locations:

• Kumi, which primarily supplies electronics customers with oxygen and nitrogen;
  
• Onsan/Ulsan, which supplies petrochemical and primary metals customers with industrial gases; and
  
• Kiheung/Cheonan, which principally supplies nitrogen to electronics customers.

In addition, KIG owns and operates standalone onsite plants, including cryogenic oxygen/nitrogen, nitrogen pressure swing adsorption, nitrogen membrane, and oxygen vacuum swing adsorption units. Through an affiliate, KIG also operates a specialty gas facility in Shihwa that transfills and produces over 10 ultrahigh-purity specialty gases-including silane, nitrogen trifluoride, boron trifluoride, and dopant mixtures.

Air Products has made several other recent investments in Korea. The company increased its interest in Hanyang Technology, Korea's leading specialty gas equipment manufacturer for the semiconductor industry, to a majority position; acquired Tae Young Chemical Corp.'s vinyl acetate-ethylene emulsions business; and acquired Korea High Polymers to form the largest producer of water-based emulsions in Korea.

For more information, call Catherine McDonald of Air Products and Chemicals at 610-481-3673, or e-mail mcdonace@apci.com.

Edited by Jim Pomager