ICI yesterday completed the sale of its Synetix division on Teesside to Johnson Matthey's global chemicals business.

Speculation about the future of the business ended in September when it was announced that UK-based Johnson Matthey had agreed to buy the Billingham company for £260m.

Last night, a spokesman for Johnson Matthey said the 400 jobs at Synetix were secure.

He said: "It is a growth opportunity and we have no plans to make any changes. We look at the acquisition as a growth opportunity."

ICI first put the business up for sale in January as part of its efforts to reduce debts - creating six months of uncertainty for Synetix staff.

Larry Pentz, division director of Johnson Matthey's chemicals business, will take over the running of Synetix.

He said: "This is an exciting time for all of us at Johnson Matthey Chemicals and those joining us from Synetix as we enter a new phase of our development."

Synetix is a global catalyst manufacturer which serves a range of market segments, including ammonia, methanol, fine chemicals, edible oils, oleochemicals, oil and gas and polymerisation. Its turnover last year was £143m.

Johnson Matthey, which has operations in 34 countries and employs 8,000 people worldwide, says Synetix will complement its strong position in a range of markets.

Johnson Matthey, with sales from catalysts and chemicals last year of £1.3bn, already has a larger market share than ICI and had been hunting for new acquisitions.

Synetix has just won two awards from the Northern Offshore Federation for export achievement and innovation achievement.

In the export section, the judges were impressed by four of Synetix's main activities which have tripled sales in the past three years, with exports rising from 54 per cent to 73 per cent of turnover.

The innovation award recognised work with the Brazillian government in introducing a tagging system throughout the nations' solvent production network to counter the illicit use in fuels.