Trinseo S.A. is a public limited liability company (société anonyme)
formed in 2010 and existing under the laws of Luxembourg. Prior to our formation,
our business was wholly owned by Dow. On June 17, 2010, investment funds advised
or managed by affiliates of Bain Capital acquired our business and Dow Europe.
During 2016, Bain Capital divested its entire ownership in the Company in a
series of secondary offerings to the market.
We are a leading global materials company engaged in the manufacture and marketing
of synthetic rubber, latex binders, and plastics, including various specialty
and technologically differentiated products. We have leading market positions
in many of the markets in which we compete. Our products that are incorporated
into a wide range of our customers’ products throughout the world, including
tires and other products for automotive applications, carpet and artificial
turf backing, coated paper, specialty paper and packaging board, food packaging,
appliances, medical devices, consumer electronics and construction applications,
among others. We have long-standing relationships with a diverse base of global
customers, many of whom are leaders in their markets and rely on us for formulation,
technological differentiation, and compounding expertise to find sustainable
solutions for their businesses. Many of our products represent only a small
portion of a finished product’s production costs, but provide critical
functionality to the finished product and are often specifically developed to
customer specifications. Therefore, we seek to regularly develop new and improved
products and processes, supported by our intellectual property portfolio, designed
to enhance our customers’ product offerings. We believe these product
traits result in substantial customer loyalty for our products.
We have significant manufacturing and production operations around the world,
which allow us to serve our global customer base. Our production facilities
included 30 manufacturing plants (which included a total of 75 production units)
at 23 sites across 12 countries, including joint ventures and contract manufacturers.
Additionally, as of December 31, 2016, we operated 10 research and development
(“R&D”) facilities globally, including mini plants, development
centers and pilot coaters, which we believe are critical to our global presence
and innovation capabilities. Our significant global operations provide geographic
revenue diversity, and diversity in end markets for our products.
We operate our business in two divisions: Performance Materials and Basic Plastics
& Feedstocks. Our two divisions are of similar size in terms of sales, but
have different margin profiles, different strategic focus, different value drivers
and different operating requirements. By organizing in this way, we believe
that we can best manage and operate the Company, focusing on accelerating the
growth of our Performance Materials division and improving the profitability
of our Basic Plastics & Feedstocks division.
Our chief executive officer, who is our chief operating decision maker, previously
managed our operations under four reporting segments: Latex, Synthetic Rubber,
Performance Plastics, and Basic Plastics & Feedstocks. Effective October
1, 2016, the Company realigned its reporting segments in order to provide increased
clarity and understanding around the drivers of profitability and cash flow
in our business. First, the previous Basic Plastics & Feedstocks segment
was split into three new segments: Basic Plastics, which includes polystyrene,
copolymers, and polycarbonate; Feedstocks, which represents our styrene monomer
business; and Americas Styrenics, which reflects the equity earnings from our
50%-owned styrenics joint venture. In addition, certain highly differentiated
acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (or ABS) supplied into Performance Plastics
markets, which was previously included in the results of Basic Plastics &
Feedstocks, is now included in Performance Plastics. Finally, the Latex segment
was renamed to Latex Binders.