Belgium's Solvay announced that it has agreed to buy Sodium Group Investment Ltd's majority stake in the Berezniki soda ash plant in Russia for 160M Euros, subject to closing adjustments. Solvay said it was buying Sodium Group's 90% stake in OAO Bereznikovsky Sodovy Zavod & 100% stake in ZAO Berkhimprom, which are merging. After closing the deal, Solvay will immediately gain control of the plant, while Sodium Group will retain a minority share for 3 years, during which the acquisition will be paid. Solvay's shares rose almost 30% since it made the announcement that it was discussing the possible sale of its drugs unit, with a market cap of EUR 6.3BN. According to Solvay, the soda ash plant is one of the 3 major soda ash producers in Russia with capacity of 500,000/tpa of light soda ash, but dense soda ash will be available by the end of 2010.
