Bayer MaterialScience establishes polyurethane systems house joint venture with Pearl Insulation Materials Industries

Both companies believe this step will enable them to play a significant role in the future growth in the Middle East. It also enables Bayer MaterialScience, one of the leading manufacturers of polyurethane raw materials worldwide, to continue the systematic expansion of its global BaySystems® network of systems houses. Under the strategic leadership of Bayer MaterialScience the joint venture will be integrated into this network under the name BaySystems Pearl. Pearl Insulation Materials ndustries, a specialist in rigid polyurethane foam thermal insulation products, has been operating successfully in the Middle East for several years. Feroz Saleem, Managing Director of the company, will take on the role of managing Director at BaySystems Pearl. The new joint venture is expected to commence operations at the beginning of 2007, once the appropriate legal processes have been finalized.

"Our joint venture represents the optimum synergies between both companies' strengths," explains Saleem. "Bringing together the innovative capacity of Bayer MaterialScience and the detailed Middle East market know-how of Pearl Insulation Materials Industries creates the best possible conditions for the successful launch of BaySystems Pearl", stated Mohammed Saleem, Chairman of DRFCO group, to which Pearl Insulation Materials Industries belongs.

"Customized solutions will make BaySystems Pearl a leading full service provider in the Middle East," comments Dr. Joachim Dohm, Head of BaySystems Integration in the Polyurethanes Business Unit of Bayer MaterialScience. "BaySystems Pearl customers will also benefit from the consistently high quality of our global BaySystems® network. Moreover, they will profit from the rapid and flexible technology transfer that operates within the network and from there direct to the polyurethane processor."

"One key task for the new systems house is to support customers in the construction industry and oil and gas extraction, where rigid polyurethane foam is used on a large scale for thermal insulation," explains Stephan Rosenthal, Senior Country Representative of Bayer MaterialScience in the Middle East. "The location in Dubai coupled with both partners' experience gives the new systems house the means to offer customers first-class know-how from a local base."

Bayer MaterialScience's network of systems houses in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region (EMEA) also includes BaySystems BÜFA GmbH & Co. KG, which largely takes care of the German market, BaySystems Northern Europe A/S for Scandinavia, the Baltic countries, and the northern part of Eastern Europe, BaySystems Italia S.p.A. for Italy, BaySystems Iberia for the Iberian peninsula, and the systems house in Nigel for Southern Africa.