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Bloomberg
Arkema SA agreed to buy a US-based supplier of mining-additives from Golden Gate Capital for $570 million as part of Chief Executive Officer Thierry Le Henaff’s drive to expand in higher-margin
specialty chemicals.
Purchasing ArrMaz Custom Chemicals Inc. will add a portfolio of defoamers and other so-called surfactants also used in road construction and agrochemicals generating annual sales of $290 million, the Colombes, France-based company said in a statement, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg.
The price equates to 10.8 times ArrMaz’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation.
For all the expectations that Arkema would follow up with more adhesive M&A following its $2.2 billion purchase of glue-maker Bostik in 2014, Le Henaff opted for target that taps phosphate mining from a rich mineral seam extending from Atlas Mountains in North Africa to Saudi Arabia. Its chemicals are used to help process the breakdown of the chalky white rock, as well as in fertilisers and highway asphalt. Arkema already sells some of its surfactant products to mining companies.