H.I.G. Capital has agreed to sell its portfolio company Valtris Specialty Chemicals to SK Capital Partners.
Valtris is a producer and distributor of specialty chemical additives and precursors used in plastics, coatings, adhesives, sealants, pharmaceuticals, flavor and fragrances, and personal care products.
Valtris, led by CEO Paul Angus, is headquartered near Cleveland in Independence, Ohio, and operates nine manufacturing facilities across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Valtris was acquired by H.I.G. as a carve-out of the polymer additives division of Ferro Corporation in December of 2014.
“It has been a pleasure to work with H.I.G. since carving out the business from Ferro,” said Mr. Angus. “Together, we have built a strong global leader in polymer additives that is well-positioned for robust future growth. SK’s investment is a strong validation of our company and talented team and launches an exciting new chapter for Valtris.”
“We have enjoyed working with Paul and the entire Valtris team,” said Keval Patel, the head of U.S. middle-market private equity at H.I.G. “The successful outcome here is a direct result of execution of the plan that we set out to accomplish. We are proud of these achievements, which position the company well for continued success under SK Capital.”
H.I.G. specializes in providing debt and equity capital to small and medium-sized companies and invests in management buyouts, recapitalizations, and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses. The firm has over $49 billion of equity capital under management. H.I.G. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Miami with additional offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta.
“We have been thrilled with the partnership with Valtris’ management and the successful transformation from a North American focused business to a global market player,” said Matt Gullen, a managing director at H.I.G. “We see tremendous potential ahead for the company.”
The acquisition of Valtris follows SK’s May 2022 buy of Florachem, a Jacksonville, Florida-headquartered maker of citrus and pine-based solvents, bio-based cleaning products, aroma ingredients, citrus flavors, pine sap resins, and cottonseed oil-based dimer and trimer acids, from Carmelina Capital.
SK Capital invests in the specialty materials, chemicals, and pharmaceutical sectors and typically invests equity of $100 million to $200 million in each portfolio company. In February 2019, the firm held a final closing of SK Capital Partners Fund V LP with total capital of $2.1 billion. SK Capital was co-founded by Barry Siadat and Jamshid Keynejad and is based in New York City.
Lazard was the lead financial advisor to H.I.G. on the sale of Valtris which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022.
© 2022 Private Equity Professional | June 1, 2022
