Evonik Industries AG is acquiring the Specialty & Coating Additives business (Performance Materials
Division) of Air Products and Chemicals,
Inc. for $3.8 billion (approximately. € 3. 5
billion), strengthening its leading position
on the high-margin specialty and coating additives market. The transaction is
intended to be completed by the end of
the year. It is expected that the acquisition will be EPS accretive for Evonik in
the 2017 business year.
Klaus Engel, CEO of Evonik
Industries AG, said: “Evonik is already
one of the leading producers of special-
ty and coating additives. Air Products’
Specialty & Coating Additives business
perfectly complements this fast-growing
segment. With this acquisition we are ex-
panding our portfolio with precisely the
right markets, products and innovations
and continuing to invest in our growth
and profitability.”
With its own strategic reorganiza-
tion and creation of three independent
operational segments in 2015, Evonik
established the right conditions for inte-
grating major acquisitions. As such, Air
Products’ Specialty & Coating Additives
business can be rapidly integrated into
the growth segments Nutrition & Care
and Resource Efficiency. The combined
specialty and coating additives business
has a turnover of around € 3. 5 billion
and an attractive EBITDA margin of
more than 20 percent. At the same time,
Evonik is further strengthening its lead-
ing position in rapidly growing, highly
profitable markets with strong differen-
tiation from competitors and low depen-
dence on commodity prices.
With their products and their strong
positions in the key global markets,
Evonik and the newly acquired business
are highly complementary. Their spe-
cialty and coating additives add critical
and highly valuable characteristics to
their customers’ products. According to
Evonik, the two businesses serve three
particularly attractive, rapidly grow-
ing core markets: coating and adhesive
additives,high-value PU foam additives,
and specialty surfactants for industrial
and institutional cleaning. They target
the same end customers, but with dif-
ferent and complementary products. For
instance, Evonik is a leader in PU foam
stabilizers while the Specialty and Coating
Additives business of Air Products is well
positioned in PU foam catalysts. Demand
for these products is rising strongly, and
the market for these additives will grow
far more quickly than overall demand for
chemical products.
Geographically, Evonik and the ac-
quired division also complement each
other. While the focus of the Air Products’
business is on North America and Asia,
Evonik is particularly strong in Europe.
With the current acquisition, Evonik
is crucially boosting its standing in the
North American market, allowing it to
serve the increasingly global activities
of its customers even more effectively.
At the same time, by growing in North
America and Asia, Evonik is reducing its
dependence on the European market and
therefore better protecting its own busi-
ness against economic fluctuations in in-
dividual regions.
Like Evonik, Air Products’ Specialty
& Coating Additives business follows a
solution-oriented business model driven
by intensive interaction with customers in
research and development and outstand-
ing technical service. The acquisition will
allow Evonik to significantly strengthen
its innovation leadership.
By optimizing production/logis-
tics, marketing/sales and administra-
tion, Evonik expects to generate cost
synergies of 60 million US dollars per
year. These should be fully realized by
2020 at the latest. In addition, Evonik
expects to achieve revenue synergies
by combining innovation activities,
leveraging the respective client bases
and product portfolios, and taking
advantage of geographical adjacencies.
In total, the deal is expected to generate
annual synergies of $80 million. The
planned acquisition remains subject to
formal approvals from the relevant an-
titrust authorities.
ANGUS Opens Customer
Application Center in Paris
Angus Chemical Company, one of the
leading manufacturers and marketers of
nitroalkanes and their derivatives, announced the grand opening of its newest
Customer Application Center in Paris.
Bringing together best-in-class technical services and local regulatory expertise to the region, the new Customer
Application Center provides a collaborative space for regional customers in
Europe, Russia, Africa and the Middle
East to work in unison with ANGUS’
technical experts.
“The opening of our Customer
Application Center in Paris is a testament
to our dedication to helping customers
achieve better levels of product and process performance,” said Mark Henning,
president and CEO at ANGUS. “We look
forward to strengthening our partner-
ships with our European clients, as well
as our clients in Russia, Africa and the
Middle East, and are excited to see the
resulting progress come to fruition.”
This new Customer Application
Center in Paris houses multifunctional
state-of-the-art laboratories along with
a modern training facility, providing a
prime location for regional customers to
collaborate face-to-face with ANGUS’ lo-
cal technical and regulatory experts. The
new Customer Application Center servic-
es a multitude of markets, including Life
Sciences, Home and Personal Care, and
Industrial Specialties, such as paints and
coatings, metalworking fluids and syn-
thetic rubber.
“Our customers continue to push the
envelope, and with the opening of our
new Customer Application Center, we
Evonik Acquires Specialty & Coating
Additives Business of Air Products
