PolyOne Announces Sale of SunBelt Investment

CLEVELAND, Feb. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- PolyOne Corporation (NYSE: POL) announced today the sale of its 50% ownership interest in SunBelt Chlor Alkali Partnership to Olin Corporation.  

SunBelt, a chlor alkali manufacturer, is a 50/50 joint venture formed in 1996 between PolyOne (formerly The Geon Company) and Olin. PolyOne's stake in SunBelt was sold to Olin for $175 million, including $132 million in cash and the assumption of PolyOne's guarantee of $43 million of SunBelt debt, with an additional earn out over the next three years if certain performance metrics are achieved.

"I am pleased with the completion of this strategic win / win transaction for both Olin and PolyOne," said Stephen D. Newlin, chairman, president and chief executive officer of PolyOne.  "I would like to thank Olin for the many years of cooperative partnership we have enjoyed together and wish them well as they integrate SunBelt into their operations."  Newlin added, "For PolyOne, the sale of SunBelt represents another step in our transformation and portfolio repositioning as we intend to use the proceeds to accelerate specialty platform growth."    

About PolyOne

PolyOne Corporation, with 2010 revenues of $2.6 billion, is a premier provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions. Headquartered outside of Cleveland, Ohio USA, PolyOne has operations around the world. For additional information on PolyOne, visit our Web site at www.polyone.com.

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Forward-looking Statements

In this press release, statements that are not reported financial results or other historical information are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Forward-looking statements give current expectations or forecasts of future events and are not guarantees of future performance.  They are based on management's expectations that involve a number of business risks and uncertainties, any of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements.  They use words such as "will," "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "plan," "believe," and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial condition, performance and/or sales.  Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those implied by these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: disruptions, uncertainty or volatility in the credit markets that could adversely impact the availability of credit already arranged and the availability and cost of credit in the future; the financial condition of our customers, including the ability of customers (especially those that may be highly leveraged and those with inadequate liquidity) to maintain their credit availability; the speed and extent of an economic recovery, including the recovery of the housing and chlor-alkali markets; our ability to achieve new business gains; the effect on foreign operations of currency fluctuations, tariffs, and other political, economic and regulatory risks; changes in polymer consumption growth rates where we conduct business; changes in global industry capacity or in the rate at which anticipated changes in industry capacity come online; fluctuations in raw material prices, quality and supply and in energy prices and supply; production outages or material costs associated with scheduled or unscheduled maintenance programs; unanticipated developments that could occur with respect to contingencies such as litigation and environmental matters; an inability to achieve or delays in achieving or achievement of less than the anticipated financial benefit from initiatives related to working capital reductions, cost reductions, employee productivity goals and our new global organization structure; an inability to raise or sustain prices for products or services; an inability to maintain appropriate relations with unions and employees; the inability to achieve expected results from our acquisition activities; and other factors affecting our business beyond our control, including, without limitation, changes in the general economy, changes in interest rates and changes in the rate of inflation.  The above list of factors is not exhaustive.

We undertake no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.  You are advised to consult any further disclosures we make on related subjects in our reports on Form 10-Q, 8-K and 10-K that we provide to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE PolyOne Corporation