New Mountain Acquires Ascensus Specialties
Private equity group New Mountain Capital has acquired Ascensus Specialties, a provider of specialty materials headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, USA. Financial details were not disclosed. The former majority shareholder Wind Point Partners will reinvest in Ascensus in partnership with New Mountain. Wind Point acquired Ascensus in January 2015 from Dow Chemical.
According to New Mountain, Ascensus is the world leader in borohydride, borane and specialty alcoholates chemistries, and also supplies a diversified range of reagents and catalysts to customers worldwide in the pharmaceutical, microelectronics, and other specialty end markets. Ascensus operates three facilities in Elma, Washington; Evans City, Pennsylvania; and Newburyport, Massachusetts.
“Wind Point continues to be a great partner, and New Mountain brings proven success in life sciences, with companies like Avantor, Gelest, Aceto and ILC Dover. With this new partnership, Ascensus will have tremendous access to capital and resources to further invest behind R&D and product innovation in a transformative way,” said the company’s CEO. Mike Huff.
In April, Ascensus completed its acquisition of Strem Chemicals, a US manufacturer of specialty chemicals, including high-purity, research-grade catalysts, ligands, organometallics, metal carbonyls and chemical vapor deposition (CVD)/atomic layer deposition (ALD) precursors for markets such as life sciences and microelectronics, among others.
Headquartered in Newburyport, Massachusetts, Strem also provides custom synthesis and CGMP manufacturing services for high-potency APIs.
Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist
