Advent: €3 billion for Evonik Industries’ methacrylates business

Frank­furt — Advent Inter­na­tio­nal (“Advent”), one of the world’s largest and most expe­ri­en­ced private equity firms, has announ­ced that it has signed a binding agree­ment to acquire the methacry­la­tes busi­ness of Evonik Indus­tries AG (“Evonik”) for €3 billion.

The tran­sac­tion compri­ses Evonik’s Methacry­la­tes, Acrylic Products, CyPlus and Methacry­late Resins Busi­ness Lines. The Group’s products include strong brands such as PLEXIGLAS® and are used in diverse end markets, inclu­ding the paints and coatings indus­try, cons­truc­tion, the auto­mo­tive indus­try and health­care. With around 3,900 employees at a total of 18 sites in Germany, North America and Asia, the Verbund gene­ra­ted sales of around 2 billion euros in 2018.

“Evonik’s methacry­la­tes busi­ness is an impres­sive tech­no­logy plat­form with an estab­lished market posi­tion and very attrac­tive growth oppor­tu­ni­ties. We look forward to working with the skil­led employees and manage­ment to estab­lish the Verbund as an inde­pen­dent global market leader in the future,” said Ronald Ayles (photo), mana­ging part­ner and head of the global chemi­cal indus­try prac­tice at Advent International.

With more than 30 successfully execu­ted tran­sac­tions in over three deca­des, Advent is one of the world’s most expe­ri­en­ced private equity inves­tors in the chemi­cal indus­try. Advent invests in well-posi­­tio­­ned compa­nies with high opera­tio­nal and stra­te­gic poten­tial. Toge­ther with the manage­ment teams of the port­fo­lio compa­nies and a strong global network of sector teams, exter­nal indus­try experts and opera­tio­nal part­ners, Advent crea­tes sustainable value through reve­nue and earnings growth. Advent also has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the spin-off of complex busi­ness units of large indus­trial companies.

With this exper­tise, Advent will work in part­ner­ship with manage­ment to help estab­lish the methacry­la­tes busi­ness as a strong stand-alone company. As with all its invest­ments, Advent is pursuing a long-term growth approach. Advent’s stra­tegy is to invest heavily in people, tech­no­logy and sites to deve­lop the divi­sion into a global market leader in methacry­la­tes. Advent sees addi­tio­nal poten­tial to further improve its alre­ady estab­lished market posi­ti­ons through invest­ment and expansion.

Advent has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in working with employee-owned German indus­trial compa­nies and atta­ches great importance to close coope­ra­tion with employee repre­sen­ta­ti­ves. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to close in the third quar­ter of 2019, subject to custo­mary tran­sac­tion condi­ti­ons and regu­la­tory approvals.

About Advent International
Advent Inter­na­tio­nal Corpo­ra­tion (“Advent”) was foun­ded in 1984 and is one of the world’s largest and most expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment compa­nies. The company has comple­ted over 340 tran­sac­tions in 41 count­ries and mana­ges assets of appro­xi­m­ately €34 billion (as of Septem­ber 30, 2018).

Advent Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH was foun­ded in Germany in 1991 and advi­ses Advent with its Fran­k­­furt-based team of consul­tants. Advent is also one of the leading private equity compa­nies in Germany and has been inves­t­ing in Euro­pean compa­nies since 1990. Advent Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH has advi­sed on invest­ments in 30 compa­nies to date. Advent Inter­na­tio­nal GmbH’s consul­ting focus is on the follo­wing core sectors: chemi­cals and indus­try, finan­cial services and busi­ness services, health­care, retail, consu­mer goods and leisure indus­try, and media and telecommunications.

Advent has successfully inves­ted in the chemi­cal indus­try in recent years. In Germany, examp­les include allnex, a leading global manu­fac­tu­rer of synthe­tic resins for the paint and coatings indus­try, and Oxea, a leading supplier of oxo alco­hols and oxo deri­va­ti­ves. In Latin America, Advent also holds stakes in VIAKEM, a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of fine chemi­cals, and GTM, a trans­na­tio­nal distri­bu­tor of chemi­cal raw materials.