The story
Founded by Jim Ratcliffe in 2011.1
In 1992, Inspec was formed by Jim Ratcliffe, previously a director of the U.S. private equity group Advent International, and by John Hollowood, for the purpose of executing a management buy-in of British Petroleum's (BP) chemicals arm.
First acquisitions
In 1995, Inspec bought BP's ethylene oxide and glycol businesses for £78 million, to become Inspec Ethylene Oxide Specialities.
In 1998, Ratcliffe, then a director of Inspec, established Ineos for the purpose of purchasing Inspec's ethylene oxide facility in Antwerp, Belgium. The £84 million purchase was funded by three entities: the Scottish investment house Murray Johnstone (£10 million), Ineos management (£1.5 million), and the investment bank BT Alex Brown (£72.5 million, raised through high-yield, non-investment grade bonds).
The company grew quickly through the acquisition of commodity chemical businesses from corporate giants such as BP, ICI and BASF.
Many subsidiaries acquired
There have been three distinct phases of Ineos's growth. The first phase spanned over ten years, with Ineos acquiring 22 companies between 1998 and 2008. The two most notable of these were Innovene, the olefins and derivatives and refining subsidiary of BP, in October 2005 for $9 billion, and ICI's commodity chemicals business in 2001.
The second phase between 2008 and 2010 saw a period of consolidation as the company tackled the impact of the global recession. As production of consumer goods, cars, and construction fell during this period, the company saw sales and earnings fall. During this period a major competitor LyondellBasell filed for bankruptcy. Some predicted a similar fate for Ineos but the company emerged from this period intact.
The third phase commenced in 2011. In this phase the company has continued to grow through a series of strategic joint ventures. In June 2011, the largest of these, Petroineos, was completed. It is a 50:50 joint venture between Ineos and PetroChina. It combines Ineos's refining interests at Grangemouth, Scotland, and at Lavéra near Martigues, France (about 30 miles west of Marseille), with PetroChina's access to upstream raw materials. In June 2011, Ineos and BASF combined their styrene businesses to form another 50:50 partnership, Styrolution. Ineos's growth has continued through this period, expanding production in the US and China. Most recently Ineos announced a joint venture with Solvay bringing together their European polyvinyl chloride businesses.
In October 2005 Ineos agreed to purchase Innovene, BP's olefins and derivatives and refining subsidiary, which had an estimated 2005 turnover of US$25 billion, for $9 billion. The deal, which was completed on 14 December 2005, roughly quadrupled Ineos's turnover, which was previously around $8 billion.
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In 2007 Ineos formed a joint venture with Lanxess and created Ineos ABS, comprising Lanxess's activities in acrylonitrile butadiene styrene production, located in Tarragona. Ineos paid €35 million in a first tranche. In March 2010 Ineos Healthcare terminated its drug development programme for commercial reasons.
Establishment of a biorefinery
Ineos Bio broke ground on the Vero Beach demonstration plant in February 2011. The facility used a gasification fermentation process to convert cellulosic waste materials, such as yard and vegetative waste, into ethanol. In addition to having the capacity to produce 8 million gallons of ethanol, the plant could also produce up to 6 MW of electricity. Texas-based Frankens Energy purchased the former Ineos Bio Indian River Biorefinery in Vero Beach, Florida in 2018.
Plant closure threat over union demands
On 23 October 2013, Ineos announced the intent to close down its petrochemical plant in Grangemouth, Scotland, following Unite's1 rejection of a "survival plan" requiring employees to accept worse employment terms, particularly on pensions. Unite commenced industrial action, but, by 25 October 2013, following the threat of closure, the union capitulated and agreed to all Ineos' demands. The plant was agreed to stay open and strike-free for three years.
In September 2016, the company completed a new headquarters building at Grangemouth as part of a "site rejuvenation plan".
Purchase of Forties pipeline system
In April 2017, Ineos reached an agreement to buy the Forties pipeline system in the North Sea from BP for $250 million. The sale included termini at Dalmeny and Kinneil, a site in Aberdeen, and the Forties Unity Platform. Towards the start of 2019, in the wake of British MPs rejecting Theresa May's Brexit Deal, the company chose to fund a €3bn investment (£2.6bn) in petrochemical production in Antwerp, Belgium.
COVID-19 pandemic
In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, hand sanitiser was in short supply due to high demand. Ineos set up new plants to produce it using key ingredients the company had used to manufacture polymers, and provided it free to hospitals. Ineos has the capacity to produce a million bottles of hand sanitiser a month. In June 2020, Ineos signed a letter of intent to acquire the petrochemicals unit of BP for $5 billion. The business is focused on aromatics and acetyls. It has interests in 14 plants in Asia, Europe and the U.S., and produced 9.7 million metric tons in 2019. The deal was expected to close prior to the end of 2020. In September 2020, Ineos signed a 10-year deal to acquire offshore wind power from Engie’s Northern wind farm. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. In January 2021, it was announced that Ineos was to donate £100 million to Oxford University for a new research institute for tackling antibiotic resistance.
More acquisitions
On 22 September 2023 Ineos Enterprises acquired the Norwegian business of Eramet Titanium & Iron for $245 million. The firm is an "ilmenite transformation plant capable of producing titanium dioxide slag and high-purity pig iron."
On 9 December 2023 INEOS announced the acquisition of the LyondellBassells ethylene oxide business.
From Wikipedia’s article on Ineos, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4