Platform Specialty Products will carry out its second major acquisition in this year at a price of about $2.3 billion including cash, stock transaction and net debt. The acquired firm is Alent(LSE: ALNT) a UK based specialty chemical company, the previous part of Cookson, mainly producing materials for surface treatment coating, semiconductor packaging, and other assembly materials.
Platform Specialty Products will pay the shareholders ₤5.03 for per share, much higher than the closing price of Alent on the London Stock Exchange on last Friday, 10 July. There is an alternative for Alent’s board and its largest shareholder- Cevian Capital. They can choose to hold 0.31523 Platform share for one Alent’s share. But there is a limitation of 58.4 million amount for the share can be exchanged by them, which is about 21.9% of Alent’s total share.
MacDermid, one of the largest competitor of Alent in specialty chemical maker, was bought by Platform Specialty Products in 2013 at a price of $1.8 billion, which formed the Platform Specialty Products before its latest acquisition in 2015. Martin Franklin, CEO of the investment vehicle that helped Platform perform the acquisition of MacDermid said Platform has a long history with Alent and it’s related companies.
The acquisition will help Platform expand its business in geography and product capability in assembly materials. Furtherly, the acquisition of Alent will help Platform achieve pretax cost savings at about $50 million per year. The combination will contribute to the business growth of Platform as well, which is the original aim of the acquisition.
After the demerger with the Cookson Group in 2012, Alent has spread its business to the market which was held formerly by the Group, said the CEO of Alent. And Alent considers the acquisition offered by Platform an opportunity to develop into a higher level in business range.
This is the eighth major acquisition of Platform since its formation, and second one in 2015. Early in February, Platform successfully accomplished the acquisition of Arysta LifeScience, a manufacture of pesticides and biological products, at $1.3 billion. It seems that Platform Specialty Product use acquisition as a major strategy for fast growth with the aim to be a giant in the industry.