Invista has completed the sale of its Apparel & Advanced Textiles business, first announced in October 2017, to an affiliate of Chinese textile company Shandong Ruyi Investment Holding.
The transaction includes the Apparel & Advanced Textiles business’s portfolio of apparel-focused fibers, products and brands, including Lycra, Coolmax, Thermolite, Elaspan, Supplex and Tactel. Also included in the sale are Terathane polytetramethylene ether glycol (PTMEG), 1,4 butanediol (BDO) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) textile input production assets, along with related manufacturing assets, research and development centers, and sales offices around the world.
Roughly 3,000 associated technical, operations, commercial and administrative staff will now be employed by Shangdong Ruyi, as part of the purchase. Invista said.
Based in Wilmington, Del., Invista retains ownership of its nylon, polyester, polyols and licensing businesses, and related brands. This includes Invista’s nylon 6,6 intermediates business, its global nylon polymer and fiber portfolio, and well-known brands such as Cordura apparel and utilitarian fabric, and Stainmaster and Antron carpet fibers. Invista will also retain its intellectual property rights for 1,4 BDO, THF and PTMEG technologies and will continue to license these and other technologies on a global basis.
The Apparel & Advanced Textiles unit was sold in 2004 by Dupont to Koch Industries for $4.4 billion. It was at Dupont that fibers such as polyester, nylon and spandex were discovered and marketed, which in the case of spandex was as Lycra. Invista remains a subsidiary of Koch Industries.
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“We are fortunate to be purchased by Ruyi, a company that shares our vision and our commitment to delivering high-quality products, technical expertise, and unmatched marketing support to our valued customers,” said Dave Trerotola, who is now CEO of the Lycra Company unit of Shangdong Ruyi. “With the continued investment of Ruyi, we look forward to working with our customers to bring exciting innovations to market. Our new shareholder’s textile and retail experience will be a tremendous asset as we develop differentiated fibers that deliver the lasting performance benefits consumers have come to know and expect from our brands.”
A price for the transaction was not disclosed. In an interview in 2015, Trerotola said Invista represented about 10 percent of Koch’s business, putting its annual sales at the time at roughly $12 billion.
Shandong Ruyi Investment Holding is one of the largest textile manufacturers in China and ranks among the Top 100 Chinese multinational enterprises. The group is primarily involved in textile offerings and owns a fully integrated value chain with operations spanning across raw materials cultivation, textiles processing, design and sale of brands and apparel.
Headquartered in Jining, Shandong, Shandong Ruyi Investment Holding operates 13 domestic industrial parks and has some of the largest production lines and advanced technologies in China. Shandong Ruyi also has a significant distribution and point of sale network that services a global customer base with about 5,000 points of sale across six continents.