By Chen Aizhu and Matthew Miller
BEIJING, Feb 2 (Reuters) - The new chief executive of China National Bluestar said he was conducting a review of its operations that could include divestments in a bid to boost growth and competitiveness at the unit of state-owned China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina).
Michael Koenig, a former Bayer AG BAYGn.DE executive and one of a few foreigners to head a Chinese state-owned company, told Reuters his priorities include improving Bluestar's already strong businesses such as animal feed nutrition, led by its French unit Bluestar Adisseo Co Ltd 600299.SS , and silicon used for electronics and solar power.
Bluestar's other business such as methanol and acrylic acid manufacturing are under pressure due to over-capacity, industry experts say.
"We'll need to go through our portfolio and see where are the areas in which we probably need to focus a little more on to be competitive," Koenig, a German national, said in his first interview since joining Bluestar this month.
"Bluestar has been an untypical Chinese company," he added. "It has been the clear front runner of Chinese SOEs when it came to internationalization (and) globalization."
Last year, Bluestar's Norwegian unit Elkem AS sealed a $640 million deal to buy Europe's largest solar panel maker REC Solar.
People with knowledge of the matter had said Bluestar was preparing to list Elkem, and Koenig said the company was "looking for the right time" for a listing. founded by state enterprise boss Ren Jianxin in 1984 as a small industrial solvent maker in China's remote northwest, has expanded using a string of acquisitions that also included the purchase of Australian petrochemical maker Qenos.
The Beijing-based firm operates 58 factories and four overseas subsidiaries.
In 2008, U.S. fund Blackstone (N:BX) BX.N paid $600 million to take a 20 percent strategic stake in the firm. In 2014, the New York-based firm quietly sold down most of its stake, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. declined to comment on the company's shareholding.
Koenig joined Bluestar after leading a Shanghai-based Bayer unit for more than a decade. earned revenue of about $7.5 billion last year, he said, without providing estimates on profits.
Koenig also declined to comment on a possible bid by parent ChemChina for Swiss agrichemcial group Syngenta, saying he was an "outsider" to any talks. (Editing by Miral Fahmy)