Element Solutions to Buy Coventya
Just weeks after spending $60 million buying UK electro-chemical producer H.K. Wentworth, Element Solutions has offered to acquire Coventya, a French international manufacturer of specialty chemicals used in surface treatment, from private equity owner Silverfleet Capital.
Element will pay approximately €420 million in cash, including the assumption or repayment of debt, with the transaction expected to close by the third or fourth quarter of 2021, subject to regulatory approvals and customary conditions.
Upon completion, Coventya will join Element’s MacDermid Enthone Industrial Solutions business unit, reporting within the Industrial & Specialty segment.
Owned by Silverfleet since 2016, Coventya has about 700 staff located at 12 production sites and 10 R&D centers in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The company specializes in developing metal finishing chemical technologies and offers several solutions that provide decorative and functional coatings for end-markets that include automotive, construction, electronic, energy, aerospace/military, fashion and consumer goods.
Silverfleet said that during its ownership Coventya has opened a new production site in China and grown its sales in Asia, expanded its product range into high growth end-markets such as lightweight parts for electric or hybrid cars, and also completed four acquisitions in Turkey, Germany and the US.
Element’s president and CEO Benjamin Gliklich described Coventya as an excellent business that his company have admired for decades. He commented: “In our markets, opportunities this size are rare, and we are thrilled to have found one consistent with our acquisition strategy of investing in markets we know and growing businesses we believe are better under our ownership.”
Gliklich added that he expects at least €13 million of annual synergies to be realized over the two years following completion. Coventya is forecast to generate revenues of approximately €160 million this year.
Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist
