Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross to buy Nexeo Solutions for $1.6 bn
21 Mar 2016
Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross has struck a deal to buy distributor of plastic resins and chemicals Nexeo Solutions Holdings from private-equity firm TPG Capital, for around $1.6 billion, including debt, The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
TPG had acquired Nexeo Solutions in 2011 from US specialty-chemicals producer Ashland Inc for $930 million.
Ross is buying the company through WL Ross Holding Corp, a company launched in 2014, and a deal is expected to be announced today, the report said.
WL Ross Holding will pay $500 million in cash and will fund the rest of the purchase with debt, the people said. TPG will roll over some of its equity into the new public company, the report added.
Nexeo, based in Texas, supplies raw materials used in a number of industries including chemical manufacturing, oil and gas and health care.
It has more than 2,400 employees in North America, Europe and Asia and generated nearly $4 billion in annual sales in its fiscal year ended September 2015.
Its recent acquisitions are Chemical Specialists and Development, Inc, also known as Startex Chemical and signed a joint venture with Beijing Plaschem.
It also signed an exclusive agreement to distribute BASF SE's specialty solvents in the US and Canada.
