New home for Perstorp specialty polyols

Malmo, Sweden – Perstorp is selling its Capa polycaprolatone business to Ingevity for EUR 590 m, in a deal that should close in early 2019.

The Capa business has approximate annual sales of EUR 150m, Perstorp said. The production site in Warrington, UK is included in the deal.

Jan Scheer, Perstorp's CEO, said that the business will continue to have 'a bright future' under the new owners.

Michael Wilson, CEO of Ingevity, said: 'Capa is a high value- added, specialty chemicals business driven by technology-based customer partnerships and focused on high growth end-markets.'

Perstorp said the sale will simplify its corporate structure and strengthen its balance sheet.

Ingevity was formerly the speciality chemicals business of US chemicals and packaging company MeadWestvaco. It separated from its parent when MeadWestvaco merged with RockTenn in 2016.

The company bought a pine chemicals business from Georgia-Pacific, a US conglomerate in 2018. The final price of that deal was $315.5 m.

Ingevity has been publicly traded since 2016. During the first nine months of 2018, it had sales of $855 m and made a gross profit of $319 m.

Before the Capa purchase, Ingevity had two divisions, performance materials and performance chemicals. Performance materials accounted for $287 m of sales in the first nine months of 2018. Sales in the same period were $567 m in the performance chemicals division. Prior to the Capa purchase, Ingevity's sales had been skewed heavily towards North America. That region accounted for $587m sales in the first nine months of 2018.