The two partners have completed studies to set up local production of surfactants in Russia at Dzerzhinsk, at SIBUR’s petrochemicals site (400km east of Moscow).

In the home & personal care market, Rhodia and Sibur are working together with customers to build business opportunities to support their growth strategy in this region, where the consumer demand is growing rapidly (CAGR 8%) and moving towards more sophisticated products in categories such as shampoos, conditioners, shower gels, laundry and household detergents.

In the oil & gas market, a series of successful trials of Rhodia’s high performance solutions have been carried out with several companies to adapt formulations to the specific conditions required for the local market.

“We are pleased to see that with our partner Sibur, we have made a major step towards setting up this joint venture which will generate new value for our customers in the CIS region.” explained Christophe Clémente, Vice President in charge of this project for Rhodia Novecare. “This alliance will reinforce our leading position worldwide in specialty surfactants. Aligned with our growth strategy, it demonstrates our commitment to become the preferred partner of our customers as they expand in fast growing countries,” added Emmanuel Butstraen, President of Rhodia Novecare.

“SIBUR and Rhodia have strong complementary activities and expertise. The association with a worldwide leader in specialty surfactants will allow us to provide value added products to meet the fast growing demand for more sophisticated and complex solutions”, commented Sergey Merzlyakov, Member of the Management Board – Managing Director of SIBUR LLC.

“Collaboration with Rhodia is in line with our strategy of expanding into carefully chosen specialty chemicals business segments to serve changing consumptions patterns and growing sophistication of Russian domestic consumer industries ”, concluded Dmitry Konov, CEO of SIBUR

Rhodia, as a worldwide leader in specialty surfactants, is providing the partnership with its expertise in surfactant technologies, its knowledge of formulations and market applications and its customer network, including global key accounts with a strong presence in this region.

SIBUR, the leading petrochemical company in Russia, is bringing its experience and knowledge of the CIS region to support the development of the surfactants business, and will also be contributing its raw materials, production and logistics capabilities.

Solvay and Sibur already pursue joint industrial and commercial activities in Russia in the vinyls market with their joint venture RusVinyl, which is constructing the largest integrated PVC plant in Russia.

Solvay is also present in Russia, through its activities in Soligran and through Rhodia Acetow as well as via a number of industrial and research partnerships.

SIBUR is the largest petrochemical company in Russia and Eastern Europe, one of the fastest growing petrochemical companies in the world, top-3 EBITDA margin in petrochemical industry globally. The Company is among top-2 European synthetic rubbers producers.

SIBUR operates across the entire petrochemical process chain from gas processing, production of monomers, plastics and synthetic rubbers to the processing of plastics. SIBUR is a vertically integrated company with its gas processing facilities providing feedstock for its petrochemical production. SIBUR’s export sales are around 40-45%. Company has trade houses in Europe and China. Overall, the company produces over 2000 different brands of products and invested $2billion in further developments in 2011.

For more information, please visit SIBUR’s website at http://www.sibur.com

Rhodia is member of the Solvay group. Solvay is an international chemical Group committed to sustainable development with a clear focus on innovation and operational excellence. Its recent acquisition of specialty chemicals company Rhodia created a much larger player which is realizing over 90 percent of its sales in markets where it is among the top three global leaders. Solvay offers a broad range of products that contribute to improving quality of life and its customers' performance in markets such as consumer goods, construction, automotive, energy, water and environment and electronics. The Group is headquartered in Brussels. Its companies employ about 29,000 people in 55 countries and generated EUR 12.69 billion in sales (pro forma) in 2011. Solvay SA is listed on NYSE Euronext (SOLB.BE- Bloomberg:SOLB.BB- Reuters:SOLBt.BR).

Rhodia Novecare, one of the major Global Business Units of Rhodia, with net sales of about €1.6 billion in 2011, provides high-performance products and solutions to a wide range of industries including cosmetics, detergents, agrochemicals, oil & gas, as well as coating and industrial applications. Thanks to a worldwide industrial footprint and global R&D and tech-support network, Rhodia Novecare holds leading positions in surfactants, amines, phosphorus derivatives, natural & synthetic polymers and monomers technologies, and eco-friendly solvents-based formulations. Rhodia Novecare has developed particular expertise to answer and anticipate customer needs in protection, surface modification, rheology, active delivery, improvement of formulations and processes and sustainable solutions.

For more information, please visit our institutional website at http://www.rhodia.com