Solvay Buys Chemlogics for $1.3 Billion
Belgian chemicals and plastics maker Solvay has agreed to buy privately held Chemlogics for $1.345 billion, bringing its share of the $8 billion-a-year U.S. market for chemicals used by the oil and gas industry to 10%.
The market is forecast to grow 6% a year to 2017, driven by fracking or horizontal drilling for shale oil and shale gas as well as deepwater drilling, Solvay said.
Traditionally a maker of low-margin PVC and soda ash, Solvay bought France's Rhodia in 2011 for its chemicals operations and has been moving away from PVC since, investing in higher-margin specialty polymers for energy, water, healthcare and cosmetics.
The company said it will finance the latest deal with cash, but also said it plans to issue 1 billion euros ($1.36 billion) of hybrid bonds to refinance debt maturing in 2014.
It is paying a multiple of 10.7 times core profit (EBITDA) and 8.7 times net of a tax benefit compared to a U.S. specialty chemicals sector average enterprise value to EBITDA multiple of 9.5, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data.
"It's not cheap," KBC analyst Wim Hoste said.
"It means certainly that Chemlogics and Solvay must be able to keep up the growth, but it is a market with a lot of growth potential," he said.
Solvay said in a statement on Monday that the acquisition would accelerate its transformation into a group with higher growth and boost its exposure to a buoyant U.S. energy sector.
Chemlogics, with 277 employees and $500 million of sales in the last 12 months, has increased its core profit by a double-digit %age per year over the past five years.
Solvay said Chemlogics - specialising in friction reducers, non-emulsifiers and extraction technologies - fits into its Novecare business, which supplies cosmetics, detergents, agrochemicals and oil industries, and has technology for surfactants, natural polymers and eco-friendly solvents.
