CSR announced today that it has successfully negotiated the sale of the land and equipment of its Viridian automotive glass business at North Geelong to MH Group for an undisclosed sum.

Under the terms of the sale, MH Group will acquire the plant and equipment at the factory and assume responsibility for production from January next year.

“Since announcing our intention to exit the automotive glass business in January this year, our primary concern has been to ensure the best possible outcome for our staff, our customers and all stakeholders,” said Jerry Maycock, Managing Director of CSR.

“In that time, we have done everything we possibly could to deliver a positive outcome and we are very pleased to reach this conclusion,” he said.

The sale means it is now likely that a majority of employees will be offered positions under a new agreement with MH Group. CSR has ensured that all employees’ redundancy entitlements will be honoured as part of its HR policies.

The automotive glass business is a very small component of CSR’s Viridian glass operations, with a negligible contribution to total earnings. It was acquired as part of the purchase of the Pilkington Australia and New Zealand glass businesses in June 2007.

Given the small scale of the automotive glass business and significant uncertainty of the automotive industry, CSR ascribed no economic value to the business at the time of the acquisition.

The sale does not affect CSR’s other glass operations.