CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio—The sale of Emerald Performance Materials, L.L.C. to private equity firm American Securities L.L.C. has been completed.
The Cuyahoga Falls-headquartered company had been part of private equity firm Sun Capital Partners Inc. since 2006. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“We are extremely proud of our accomplishments during our tenure as a Sun Capital Partners portfolio company—doubling the company's revenue and achieving a three-fold improvement in EBITDA,” said Candy Wagner, president and chief financial officer of Emerald Performance Materials. “Emerald's employees are enthusiastic about the next step in our future and remain committed to continued innovation and growth of our company, while helping our customers and suppliers achieve their growth goals.”
Emerald produces specialty chemicals that serve a wide range of markets, including flavors and fragrances, food and beverage, personal and household care, composites, structural adhesives, coatings and plastics. It produces benzoic acid and derivatives such as fragrance ingredients and plasticizers, specialty resins, reactive liquid polymers and modifiers, antioxidants, accelerators, colorants, foam control products and other additives.
“American Securities is committed to supporting the strategic vision of the Emerald management team and investing in continued growth of the company,” said Scott M. Wolff, managing director at American Securities. “Emerald represents a compelling investment opportunity and leverages our industry knowledge and track record in the specialty chemicals sector.”
Emerald was formed in 2006 from the divesture of six specialty chemical businesses from Lubrizol Corp. Since then, it has acquired four complementary businesses. It has four business groups and eight operations, while employing 750.
The company has invested and expanded capacity recently at its facilities in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and Kalama, Wash., in order to meet customer demand for benzoic acid and specialty products such as non-phthalate plasticizers and fragrance ingredients.
The company also upgraded its Charlotte facility to expand production of foam control and specialty silicone materials, increased capacity of its reactive modifiers at Maple Shade, N.J., and expanded research and development and pilot plant capabilities at Kalama, Cincinnati, Charlotte, Moorestown, N.J., and Akron.
The company said it has introduced 50 products to the market since it was formed.