OREANDA-NEWS. August 21, 2012. BASF and PROSOL Lacke + Farben GmbH signed a contract regarding the sale of the decorative paints business of RELIUS COATINGS GmbH & Co. KG in Germany and RELIUS FRANCE SAS in France. The business encompasses construction paints and plaster as well as varnishes and glazes for construction application and is mainly based in Germany, France and some other selected countries in Europe. The sale of the business includes the Memmingen site in Germany as well as 30 distribution points in Germany and France. The transfer is scheduled to be completed on November 30, 2012. The two parties agreed to not disclose any information on the purchase price.

The decorative paints business of RELIUS in the Netherlands is not part of the transaction. BASF is currently negotiating the sale of this part of the RELIUS COATINGS business. The industrial coatings business of RELIUS COATINGS at the Oldenburg site in Germany is also not affected and will remain an integral part of BASF.

Currently about 350 employees work in the decorative paints business of RELIUS COATINGS in Germany and France. PROSOL takes over the employment contracts of these employees.

"RELIUS COATINGS has a very experienced team, state-of-the-art sites and well established brands. We are confident that this business can have a successful perspective at PROSOL that has its core competencies in construction paints", says Dr. Markus Kamieth, President of BASF's Coatings Division. "We are glad to have achieved our goal to safe as many jobs as possible", adds Kamieth.

Dieter Prosch, Managing Director of PROSOL, says: "We are very pleased with the purchase of the decorative paints business of RELIUS COATINGS. It perfectly fits in with our portfolio and expands our network of sites."

PROSOL is a leading wholesale company for paints and coatings. The company was founded in 1949 and employs 500 employees at 40 sites. The product range comprises decorative paints, automotive refinish paints, industrial coatings and wood coatings of leading manufacturers. It is completed by a broad offer of accessories and consists of more than 50,000 articles. Customers from the industry and trade are supplied by the company-owned vehicle fleet on a daily basis. Being a reliable partner for our customers is our top priority.

BASF Coatings develops, produces and markets a high-quality range of innovative automotive OEM coatings, automotive refinishes and industrial coatings as well as decorative paints. BASF has significant market positions in the Coatings sector in Europe, North America, South America and the Asia Pacific region. In 2011 BASF Coatings achieved global sales of 2.8 billion Euros.