CALGARY, Alberta—Tokai Carbon Co. Ltd. officially completed its $190 million acquisition of Cancarb Ltd. from TransCanada Corp. on April 15, ending the Canadian firm's 23-year ownership of Cancarb.
A spokesman for TransCanada said the company was interested in “pursuing a possible sale of Cancarb at this time for a couple of different reasons,” but mainly because Cancarb is a valuable asset and a profitable business that just did not fit in the company's growth plan.
He said the divestiture of Cancarb and its waste heat recovery power plant, located in Medicine Hat, Alberta, allows it to capitalize on current market conditions and better align its asset base with the company's strategic direction, focused on large-scale pipeline and power generation projects in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
“Deals like this are always a lot of work, but things are going well,” said Cancarb President Dave Petrie. “We continue to receive some support services from our former parent on things like IT, but we expect to be fully independent of outside support within two months.”
Petrie said the transaction and Tokai “have received a very warm welcome by the local community.”
The company recently had a celebration that was attended by the local representative in the Canadian parliament, as well as the mayor and six other members of city council.
With the transition, Cancarb was able to retain all of its employees and may be looking to expand in the future. “Cancarb has 70 employees at present. We do have a few pre-closing vacancies to fill in the next couple of months,” Petrie said.
“More employees may be in the cards, but the precursor to that is identifying ways to leverage the complementary strengths of the two companies. At the highest level, those would include Tokai's very strong R&D effort and Cancarb's global market position.”
Petrie said Cancarb looks to leverage Tokai's experience in the carbon black industry as well as its commitment to research and development.
“We are confident with this transaction that Cancarb will achieve the next level of production, application and product technology,” he said.
Cancarb produces and markets thermal carbon black with customers in 44 countries. Tokyo-based Tokai Carbon Co. Ltd. is focused on carbon-related products and services, including carbon black and graphite.