Venator’s UK chemicals business secures strategic buyer

The Venator Group’s UK restructuring has moved into its next phase with the completion of a sale of the group’s Greatham titanium dioxide business, preserving more than 130 jobs and transferring one of the UK chemicals sector’s key TiO₂ pigment operations to Chinese buyer LB Group.

Venator Materials UK Limited, which entered administration in October 2025 shortly after the collapse of several upstream holding companies within the wider Venator Group, completed the sale of its Greatham site and associated titanium dioxide pigment assets to LB Titanium UK Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of China-based LB Group Co., Ltd. The business will now operate under the Tioxide name.

The transaction follows the execution of an asset purchase agreement in October 2025 and concludes a months-long process that required the administrators Jonny Marston, Mark Firmin and Helen Skeates of Alvarez & Marsal to maintain the Teesside facility in an idle but operationally secure state while regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions were satisfied.

At the time of the initial appointments, the group said it had been severely affected by rising costs and intensified competition across the global chemicals market, despite having completed a prepackaged Chapter 11 restructuring only two years earlier that eliminated approximately US$1 billion of debt.

The Greatham operation was one of the group’s most significant remaining industrial assets in the UK. The site manufactures titanium dioxide pigments used in coatings, plastics, paper, inks and other industrial applications, and formed part of Venator’s broader global TiO₂ business.

According to the administrators, the completed transaction secures ongoing employment for 132 employees at the Greatham site and is expected to support further investment in the local economy under LB Group’s ownership. Twenty-nine roles were excluded from the transfer, although some affected employees will continue assisting the administrators with residual wind-down activities across the broader Venator estate.

The administrators were assisted by Latham & Watkins.