Laporte, one of the few remaining large British chemicals groups, which has operations at Hythe, is to be bought by German giant Degussa-Huls in a £1.36 billion deal.

The takeover comes just three months after the 118-year-old company clinched a deal to sell its commodity chemicals businesses for £810 million to a venture capital group.

That sale had re-ignited rumours the group would be the subject of a takeover bid - and also followed speculation last year that the group would be bought by Swiss chemicals group Clariant.

Laporte, said the company, its staff, and its customers would benefit from being part of a larger firm.

The deal follows hard on the heels of the Southampton-based privately- owned group Ineos, headed by chief executive Jim Ratcliffe, buying up ICI's industrial chemicals operations in the North-West. He was managing director of the former Southampton chemicals group Inpsec, which sold to Laporte in 1998.

Laporte chief executive Jim Leng, who will be departing the group following the integration, said: "Over the past four years, Laporte has successfully transformed its portfolio of businesses, and recently we announ-ced the final part of our repositioning with the sale of our non-speciality organics operations.

"While we now have a focused business with an attractive future, we believe Laporte, its employees, and its customers will benefit from the market presence of new Degussa in reaching our planned scale more quickly.''

Laporte employs 2,300 people in 12 countries with the group's largest UK plant in Teesside.

The German group, which was formed by the merger of Degussa and Huls in February 1999, and is majority owned by e.on, the German utility, employs more than 44,000 staff overall.

For Laporte, the sale follows a five-year restructuring programme to concentrate on speciality organic products and exit from low-margin consumer products.

However, the takeover will leave few players in the UK chemicals arena. ICI's industrial chemicals business is to be bought by Southampton based Ineos under a £325 million deal, which along with BOC are among the largest remaining companies, while smaller groups include Ascot and Croda International.