BOSSES at debt-laden ICI claim the sale of its Synetix business and a proposed rights issue to raise £808m will put the chemicals com-pany back on a stable footing.

The news came as ICI reported a fall in pre-tax profits from £450m to £401m in the year to December 31.

The group plans to issue 463.3 million shares at the discounted price of 180p, 44 per cent less than ICI's closing price of 324p on Friday.

The group plans to offer qualifying shareholders seven new ICI shares for every 11 existing shares they hold.

ICI has debts of £2.9bn after transforming itself from a high volume chemicals firm into a global speciality products and paints business.

The repositioning of the group has left a workforce of 7,000 UK staff - 40,000 worldwide - at sites in Middlesbrough, Slough, High Wycombe and Ashford.

ICI's catalyst business Synetix, in Billingham, which has been put on the market, employs about 800, including 400 on Teesside, and has 5,000 customers in 85 countries.

Chairman Lord Trotman said: "ICI believes that Synetix is a strong business in a consolidating industry. Its divestment will create more value for ICI's shareholders than its retention as part of the group."

Once Synetix is sold, ICI will employ about 600 on Teesside, a far cry from the 30,000 in the 1960s.

The majority of those will be at surfacants business Uniqema, with others in research and technology.

Lord Trotman said sales at ICI's core businesses in the final three months of 2001 were just one per cent lower worldwide and that the new year had started satisfactorily.

Last year, group turnover was up £10m at £6.43bn.

He said: "The board believes that these results demonstrate the quality and resilience of the business in a tough economic climate."

Lord Trotman said the proposed rights issue was necessary to help cut debts that had arisen from ICI's recent three-year transformation programme.

That included the disposal of its bulk chemicals business to the Huntsman Corporation of the US.

ICI shareholders will receive a dividend of 16p for the whole year, compared with 32p in 2000.

Shares closed up 17 at 341.