After 2 years and a half as its majority shareholder, LBO France has entered into exclusive negotiations for the sale of CHRYSO® with international private equity firm Cinven, on March 24th, 2017, for an undisclosed amount.
This project will allow the CHRYSO® Group to fully support its ambitious strategy to become a global leader.
Cinven’s Industrials and French teams identified CHRYSO® as an attractive investment opportunity based on:
- The Group’s strong market position in an attractive market segment across both developed and emerging geographies;
- Its highly experienced management team led by President & Chief Executive Officer Thierry Bernard, who has backed the Group’s strong historic growth;
- The Group’s successful track record of acquiring and integrating businesses, as demonstrated by the completion of six acquisitions over the past two years, with further consolidation opportunities, particularly in emerging economies;
- The Group’s excellent innovation capabilities facilitated through its R&D centres and close proximity to its customers;
- The strong growth in infrastructure spending, increasing housing demands in emerging economies, and a housing market recovery in Europe and the US; and
- Attractive geographic expansion opportunities into the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
“We had identified CHRYSO® as a strong business operating in the highly attractive building chemistry industry and have been following the company closely. Cinven is delighted to have the opportunity to invest in the business, backing the excellent management team. Our ability to move quickly to secure the investment reflects the effectiveness of our sector-geographic matrix origination approach, with our French and Industrials teams working closely together on the opportunity.”Nicolas Paulmier, Partner at Cinven, added:
“We are very excited by the growth prospects at CHRYSO®. The business is very well run and there are considerable opportunities to grow the business organically, as well as through acquisitions and developing into new geographies. Cinven has a significant track record of working with companies to support their buy and build strategies and internationalising their businesses, particularly in Asia, and we are looking forward to doing this with CHRYSO®.”Thierry Bernard, President and Chief Executive Officer of CHRYSO® Group, said:
“CHRYSO® is extremely well positioned to benefit from several attractive market drivers including increasing concrete consumption for infrastructure and housing globally; the greater complexity and scale of construction projects – with tougher requirements on building materials performance; and a growing focus on sustainable development. “We are very pleased to be working with Cinven given their considerable experience in growing companies responsibly and working closely with management teams to achieve global leadership.”CHRYSO® will represent Cinven’s fourth investment from The Sixth Cinven Fund. The works’ council of CHRYSO® will be consulted on the transaction and completion of the transaction would be subject to customary regulatory approvals.