SK Capital’s Archroma Buys BASF Unit to Expand Textile Chemicals
Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) — Archroma, the Swiss chemicals maker owned by SK Capital Partners LP, will buy BASF SE’s textile operations as Chief Executive Officer Alexander Wessels looks to build a $3 Billion sales company from assets discarded by the chemical industry’s incumbent players including Clariant AG.
The transaction, expected to close in the first quarter, will add 290 employees and a range of printing, finishing and coating additives to Reinach, Switzerland-based Archroma, the companies said today, without disclosing financial details.
“We are bringing together the century-old history of BASF textile-chemicals products, technologies and people with Archroma’s already strong heritage from Hoechst, Sandoz and Clariant,” Wessels said in a statement.
The deal with BASF will take Archroma a step closer to its 2018 revenue goal and strengthen its critical mass in an industry that’s undergone large-scale restructuring faced with competition in Asia. Huntsman Corp. is completing a shift of its production lines to Asia to be closer to its customer base.
Both BASF’s and Archroma’s textile businesses are headquartered in Singapore, close to faster-growing Asian customers, the Swiss company said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Winters in Zurich at pwinters3@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Thiel at sthiel1@bloomberg.net Andrew Noel, Kim McLaughlin
