BASF, Solenis combine paper and water chemical businesses

摘要

BASF is combining its paper wet-end and water chemicals business with private equity-backed Solenis (Wilmington, Delaware). Solenis's parent, private equity frm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R; New York) will hold 51% stake in the combined entity, while BASF will hold the remaining 49% share. CD&R closed the $1.8-billion acquisition Ashland’s water technologies business and relaunched it as Solenis in July 2014. John Panichella, president and CEO of Solenis, will con- tinue to lead the new entity, which will operate under the Solenis name and be headquartered at Wilmington. BASF will nominate three out of seven shareholder representatives of the joint entity. Closing is anticipated for the end of 2018 at the earliest, pending approval by the relevant authorities. Financial terms of the transaction are not being disclosed. The transaction includes BASF’s paper wet-end and water chemicals business, with 2017 sales of around ?800 million ($958.9 million) and about 1,300 employees. The transfer includes production sites and plants of the paper wet-end and water chemicals business at Bradford and Grimsby, United Kingdom; Sufolk, Virginia; Altamira, Mexico; Ankleshwar, India; and Kwinana, Australia. The combined entity, with pro forma sales of around ?2.4 billion and around 5,000 employees in 2017, will aim to deliver additional value for paper and water treatment customers. However, BASF’s paper and water chemi- cals production at Ludwigshafen, Germany, and Nanjing, China, are not being transferred, and will instead deliver products and raw materials to the combined entity under mid- to long-term supply agreements. BASF’s paper coating chemicals portfolio is not part of the transaction.