THE £1.1 billion takeover of Southampton based plastics giant Lucite is to go ahead after Chinese authorities dropped their objections.

The future for the 12 Southampton workers in the firm’s Queen’s Terrace headquarters is now unclear, although there has been no suggestion of job losses as a result of the deal.

Lucite employs 2,000 workers in ten countries with only a handful in the UK, despite being listed as the country’s 51st largest private company. Its acrylic products are used in everything from bathtubs to bus stops and fish tanks.

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The bid from Japan’s Mitsubishi Rayon, which was first announced last November, stalled on concerns from the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing about the impact on Lucite’s manufacturing facilities there.

Takeover bids were triggered by plans to open a new state-of-the-art factory in Singapore, which promises to supply raw materials at a much lower cost than existing technology.

Known as Alpha technology, it delivers a 30 per cent saving over traditional techniques. The development is particularly highly prized because the soaring cost of oil has made manufacturing plastic far more expensive.

Mitsubishi said it plans to expand Lucite’s core business over the next three years.