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A Schulman agrees to acquire Ferro’s Specialty Plastics units
A Schulman has agreed to buy most of the Specialty Plastics business segment of Ferro, including four facilities in the USA and its operation in Spain, for US$91 million in cash. The deal, which is subject
to regulatory approvals, is expected to close before the end of Schulman’s current fiscal year (31 August 2014). It includes the USA-based Ferro plants at Stryker in Ohio, Evansville and Plymouth in Indiana, and Carpentersville in Illinois, as well as the Castellon facility in Spain. It does not include Ferro’s plastics business and opera- tions at Edison in New Jersey in the USA or at Carabobo in Venezuela.
The units included in the Schulman acquisition achieved sales of US$154 million in 2013, with approximately two-thirds of these revenues generated in the USA. Schulman said that it antici- pates making synergistic savings of around US$5.5
million over the first 18 months, driven primarily by sourcing and plant efficiency actions.
Schulman had unsuccess-
fully attempted to acquire the entire Ferro business back in 2013. The Specialty Plastics business, which is a global supplier of custom engineered plastic compounds, colorants, and liquid coatings (the latter primarily focused on thermo- set technology), was a key attraction.
“Specialty Plastics is a
performance-driven, techni- cally demanding business, and this business segment is what initially attracted us to seek to acquire Ferro back in 2013,” said Joseph Gingo, chairman, president and CEO of A Schulman. “Strategically combining
the two businesses provides the existing customers of the Specialty Plastics segment with an expanded product portfolio, technical solutions and global resources with the
strategy or are underperform- ing relative to our expected value creation metrics. Over the past 18 months, we have made significant progress on this objective.”
Joseph Gingo: Specialty Plastics is what initially attracted us to seek to acquire Ferro in 2013
full support of the A Schul- man team,” he added. Following the Specialty
Plastics sale announcement, Ferro announced that it was also looking to sell its Polymer Additives business. Ferro chairman, president and CEO Peter Thomas said: “A major component of our value creation strategy is to harvest the value of assets that are no longer core to our growth
He said the decision to sell the Speciality Plastics units and the proposed disposal of the Polymer Additives business, which generated sales of US$293 million last year, made clear its intention to focus resources on its Performance Materials product lines, which it sees offering higher growth opportunities and greater scope for value enhancement. “Our strategic vision is to
become the premier global functional coatings and colour solutions company, building on our core competencies in glass and colour technologies. These divestitures will align our portfolio with that vision and provide liquidity for strategic growth activities,” Thomas said. ❙
www.aschulman.com ❙
www.ferro.com
PolyOne invests in lab compounding
PolyOne Europe has ordered a complete compounding line based around a Coperion ZSK 26 Mc18
tory extruder for its development facility at Gaggenau in Germany.
The extruder will be fitted with
special wear-resistant screw and barrel elements. The installation also includes four Coperion K-Tron loss-in-weight
www.compoundingworld.com twin-screw labora-
feeders for handling solid materials and one liquid loss-in-weight feeder. The pelletizing system is also supplied by Coperion and comprises a Type SC80-3.000 strand conveyor and an SP 50 EN strand pelletizer. PolyOne will use the new laboratory
compounding system for development of fibre-reinforced and additive- enhanced polymer compounds. ❙
www.coperion.com
June 2014 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 5
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