BASF has agreed to acquire Becker Underwood, a portfolio company of Norwest Equity Partners (NEP), for $1.02 billion. NEP acquired Becker Underwood in 2004.
Becker Underwood is a provider of technologies for biological seed treatment, seed treatment colors and polymers, as well as products in the areas of biological crop protection, turf and horticulture, animal nutrition and landscape colorants and coatings. Becker Underwood has 10 production sites worldwide and 479 employees and is expected to achieve sales of $240 million for fiscal year 2012, ending on September 30. The company is based in Ames, IA (www.beckerunderwood.com).
As part of the acquisition, BASF’s Crop Protection division will create a new global business unit called Functional Crop Care. The unit will merge BASF’s existing research, development and marketing activities in the areas of seed treatment, biological crop protection, plant health, as well as water and resource management with those of Becker Underwood.
“Over the past years, Becker Underwood has established itself as an innovative provider of solutions for agriculture,” said Dr. Peter Innes, Chief Executive Officer of Becker Underwood. “Strengthened by the power of BASF’s research capabilities as well as its existing portfolio of solutions, we will be able to develop and globally market new types of solutions for growers.”
Norwest Equity Partners is a middle-market private equity firm. The firm makes equity investments of $30 million to $150 million in companies operating in the agriculture, applied technology, business services, consumer products and services, distribution, diversified industrials, and healthcare sectors. The firm manages $5 billion of capital through a series of equity and mezzanine limited partnerships and is currently investing NEP IX with $1.2 billion in capital. Norwest Equity Partners is headquartered in Minneapolis (www.nep.com).
BASF is one of the largest chemical companies in the world and has subsidiaries and joint ventures in more than 80 countries and operates six production sites and 390 other production sites in Europe, Asia, Australia, Americas and Africa. In 2010, BASF posted sales of €63.9 billion and income from operations before special items of about €8.1 billion. The company is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany (www.basf.com).
© 2012 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 9-21-12