Holding/Projects
Projects of the future and important Group services
In addition to our parent and holding company PCC SE, the Holding segment also incorporates a number of entities. It manages and controls projects aligned to the future – for example the construction of a production plant for silicon metal in Iceland which we commissioned in 2018. This reduces the administrative load on the operating businesses. The Holding segment also provides predominantly centralized, corporate services to the Group companies, for example in the fields of finance and information technology. The Holding segment is divided into three business units: Portfolio Management, Projects and Services.

Portfolio Management
The active portfolio management approach of PCC SE encompasses, firstly, the development of our operations and affiliates, and secondly, utilization of divestment opportunities. Our focus with regard to the development of operations is aligned in equal measure to the acquisition of new shareholdings and the leveraging of existing activities and projects. We are primarily concerned with positioning ourselves in less competitive submarkets and market niches. Our main investment engagement continues to be directed towards the developing economies of Central, Eastern and South-East Europe, although we are stepping up our activities in emerging markets on other continents, particularly Asia.
As indicated, however, PCC is also willing and able to sell operations and affiliates where disposal offers attractive gains and the funds thus released can be invested in the expansion of other core activities. The holding company will also dispose of portfolio entities where these are unable to offer satisfactory returns or fail to exhibit attractive development potential.
The following offers examples of the approach to portfolio management adopted by PCC SE:
Until June 2015, the company 3Services Factory S.A., the activities of which include operation of a data center, was allocated to the Projects business unit. In 2014, the data centre underwent its third expansion phase, achieving a significant increase in both sales and profits compared to the previous year. However, this company lies outside the core business activities of the PCC Group, and PCC SE therefore decided to dispose both of this participation and also of its minority shareholding in 3Services S.A., Katowice, the co-owner of the data centre. The closing of the sale took place as planned at the end of June 2015. This constitutes a further example of the strategy of active portfolio management adopted by PCC SE, whereby projects are developed to the point where they can also be sold on to other investors.
Projects
The Holding segment pools together projects at the planning and construction phase before assigning them to our operating Group segments. In this way, we relieve the operating segments of the burden of project management while at the same time leveraging experience gained by the Group management from more than two decades of planning and project stewardship in developing new fields of activity.
The following offers a few examples of the project management activities performed by the Holding segment:
PCC SE and PETRONAS Chemicals Group Berhad (PCG) are establishing a joint production of oxyalklyaltes (special polyether polyols and nonionic surfactants) in Kertih in the Malaysian state of Terengganu. Their 50/50 joint venture PCG PCC Oxyalkylates Sdn. Bhd. started construction work in October 2021. With this investment project, the PCC Group is expanding some of its core business areas into the growth regions of Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific.
A further project involves the construction of a plant for the production of ultra-pure dimethyl ether (DME) in Russia. DME is primarily used in the cosmetics industry as an odorless and environmentally friendly propellant, e.g. for hairsprays, as well as in the manufacture of polyurethane foam for building applications. The foundation for this project was laid by PCC SE in 2012 through the establishment of the joint venture OOO DME Aerosol with the Russian company JSC Shchekinoazot. Construction of our DME plant in Russia started in April 2017. The commissioning of the plant with an annual capacity of 20,000 tonnes took place at the end of 2018. The final performance test was successfully completed in May 2019.
Services
In addition to project development and management, the Holding segment also provides Group services in the fields of finance, corporate development, information technology, environmental protection, research and development, and engineering/technology. Working from our chemicals site in Brzeg Dolny, for example, PCC IT S.A. provides IT services to internal and external customers – a perfect example of how we leverage synergies in order to generate added value.
Investments in the Holding/Projects division

In the Holding/Projects segment, we manage projects geared to the future, such as the silicon metal plant in Iceland which was commissioned in 2018. This investment project is exemplary in that the two basic prerequisites for modern silicon metal production are already in place: high-quality quartzite as the primary feedstock from the PCC-owned quarry in Poland, and provision of the power needed from exclusively renewable energy resources.