GE PLASTICS BEING SOLD TO SAUDI COMPANY

(05/23/2007)

A Middle East corporation has purchased GE Plastics in Parkersburg. SABIC, founded in 1976, is the largest public company in the Middle East by market capitalization and is headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. GE and SABIC Corp. announced Monday they reached an agreement to sell GE Plastics in a transaction worth $11.6 billion, pending regulatory approvals. The sale includes the Washington site in Wood County, but not GE Silicones in Sistersville. Keith Burdette, president of the Wood County Development Authority, said this week he hopes GE has made a good decision for it and the plant. The concern always is further manufacturing losses, said George Kellenberger, president of the Chamber of Commerce of the Mid-Ohio Valley. "We hope that is not a continued trend in our community," he said. The plant was built by Marbon in 1957 and later became Borg-Warner Chemicals in 1963. It was sold to GE Plastics for $2.3 billion in 1988. A considerable number of Calhoun men and women have worked at the plant over the years. SABIC employs 17,000 people and has facilities in Asia, Europe and research and technology centers in Riyadh, the Netherlands, Houston and Vadodara in India.

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