Industri Kapital loses Kemira

Amid mounting pressure from parliamentarians and union workers, the Finnish government has ended talks with Industri Kapital, the leading Scandinavian buyout firm, over the sale of its stake in Kemira, the Finnish chemicals company.

The government faced a one-day strike in September from workers at Kemira, one month after the deal was announced. According to reports, the workers were resentful of the prospect of a future under the wing of a financial buyer.

Industri Kapital’s proposal was to combine the government's 56 per cent stake in Kemira with its own holdings in chemical groups Dynea and Sydsvenska Kemi.

The government would have retained a 34 per cent stake in the new group, which would have been headquartered in Finland and run by a Finnish CEO. It was expected that the business would employ around 16,000 people and generate annual sales of around E4.3bn.