Triton Funds Buy Fertiberia

Funds advised by German investment group Triton have acquired Spanish fertilizer and industrial chemicals producer Fertiberia from Grupo Villar Mir, a privately-owned conglomerate. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Triton announced last August that it had agreed to buy the Madrid-based group, which operates five fertilizer plants in Spain, notably at Aviles, Huelva, Palos, Puertollano and Sagunto.

Fertiberia has been undergoing a transformation program to diversify toward increasingly differentiated products that generate higher margins.

The Triton funds focus on investing in medium-sized businesses headquartered in Europe. The group currently has 38 companies in its portfolio with combined sales of about €14.7 billion.

Triton was said to be one of the parties interesting in taking over Evonik’s methacrylates business last year, which eventually ended up with Advent International. The company previously owned Evonik’s carbon black activities (along with Rhone Capital), which were renamed as Orion Engineered Carbons and went public in 2014.