Covestro acquires Pontacol to enhance its competitiveness in specialty films

On August 28, 2025, global leading polymer manufacturer SenseTime officially completed the acquisition and delivery of Swiss multi-layer film manufacturer Pontacol. This transaction, which took only two months since the signing of the acquisition agreement in June, marks a crucial step in Covestro's strategic layout in the field of specialty films.

The core value of this acquisition lies in multi-dimensional collaborative upgrading. On a technical level, Pontacol is deeply involved in the field of thermoplastic film, with its cast and blown film technologies complementing Covestro's existing polycarbonate and thermoplastic polyurethane films, jointly building a complete value chain from basic materials to integrated solutions; At the production network level, Pontacol's precision casting base in Switzerland and large-scale blown film base in Germany will be linked with Covestro's Asia Pacific application center and production lines to form a "European technology center+regional manufacturing cluster" architecture, effectively improving regional supply response speed and adapting to differentiated market demands.

In terms of market and financial strategy, the acquisition of three high potential tracks, namely precision card positioning medical technology, new energy transportation, and high-end textiles, will optimize the business structure of Covestro; The transaction is conducted in cash, which not only avoids equity dilution and aligns with a stable business strategy, but also builds a technological moat through the integration of patents. Essentially, this is an important practice of Covestro's "solution oriented" strategy, which will not only strengthen its own competitiveness and support climate neutral production commitments, but also reshape the global competitive landscape in the field of specialty films.

The implementation of this acquisition also relies on the long-term production capacity layout accumulation of Covestro. Since 2018, Covestro has launched a global film production capacity expansion strategy, with a total investment of over 100 million euros, and continues to layout in Thailand, Germany, China, the United States and other places. The Mata base in Thailand will launch a new production line in 2023 (with mechanical completion by March 2025), focusing on the needs of the Asia Pacific medical field and balancing efficiency improvement and carbon reduction; The Dormagen factory in Germany will add a special film production line in 2021, and the Bomlitz factory will expand its TPU film center and supporting facilities in 2023; The South Deerfield base in the United States will expand production of polycarbonate films in 2019, and in January 2025, it will announce the expansion of customized polycarbonate products at the Ohio factory; At the end of 2018, the Guangzhou base in China shut down its sheet metal production line and transformed into polycarbonate film. In 2019, it further expanded production to adapt to the Asia Pacific market. This series of layouts has laid a solid foundation for the deepening of technological synergy and the improvement of the global supply network in this acquisition, and is in line with the "solution oriented" and global layout ideas of Covestro.