Deal Announcement 03/17: Chemicals

The Deal

The German PwC M&A team is pleased to announce the successful Closing of Project BLUE, the sale of solvadis holding S.à r.l. (“solvadis” or the “Company”), a top tier European chemicals distribution and marketing company, to Sojitz Corporation (“Sojitz”), a leading Japanese trading company. solvadis was a portfolio company of Special Situations Venture Partners II funds, which are exclusively advised by Orlando Management AG. PwC M&A acted as exclusive financial advisor to the vendors.

Following diligent deal preparation and global approach of investors, PwC M&A arranged a competitive sell-side process in order to achieve the best solution for the company, its employees and the vendors. In addition to M&A lead advisory, PwC provided tax advisory and assurance services to ensure a smooth transaction process. Clifford Chance, led by Dr. Jörg Rhiel, acted as legal advisor to the vendors on all transaction-related matters.

Sojitz Group, with solvadis, will contribute to the European chemicals industry by providing a stable supply of various chemicals, and will focus on increasing its marketing volume to € 1bn in the next 3 years.

solvadis

solvadis group is a Frankfurt, Germany, based company specializing in the European and international marketing and distribution of chemical and pharmaceutical products. Having emerged from former Metallgesellschaft AG the group has since developed into a reliable and respected partner of the chemical industry. With its proven marketing concept and its long-term relationships to producers and customers, solvadis has established itself as one of the leading European chemical marketers and distributors. In 2016, solvadis generated revenues of approx. € 520m with about 140 employees.

The company is recognized for its strengths in sales of basic chemicals such as sulphur, sulphuric acid, and in particular, methanol, of which it handles more than 1 million tons per year. Utilizing its chemical tanks and other logistics facilities at the heart of Europe’s industrial area along the river Rhine.

Sojitz Corporation

Sojitz Corporation is a Tokyo, Japan, based company consisting of approx. 400 subsidiaries and affiliates located in Japan and throughout the world, developing wide-ranging general trading company operations in a multitude of areas and regions.

Sojitz Group produces and sells methanol in the Asia region, with sales of more than 1 million tons annually. There is wide-ranging demand for methanol as a basic ingredient in products including paints, plastics, adhesives, and medicines, and it has also garnered interest as a future source of environmentally-friendly “clean energy”. Through this acquisition, Sojitz Group aims to expand its annual trading volume to more than 2 million tons and enlarge the company’s position as a global player within the methanol industry. At the same time Sojitz aims to create synergies within the basic and specialty chemical sectors, integrating the marketing and distribution strengths of solvadis group in Europe into Sojitz’ global sales network.

PwC

The global PricewaterhouseCoopers network is a worldwide association of independent auditing and consulting companies which together employ more than 200,000 employees in 157 countries. Our global network comprises nearly 1,550 M&A professionals all over the world, realizing approx. 390 successful transactions per year. We specialize in a wide range of independent M&A services including advice on acquisitions and disposals, mergers, public takeovers, privatizations as well as structured financing.

PwC M&A acted as the exclusive financial advisor to funds exclusively advised by Orlando Management AG on the sale of solvadis group to Sojitz Corporation.

The PwC M&A deal team consisted of Alexander Wenzel (Director), Nicolas Kreuziger (Manager) and Rosmarie von Rottkay (Senior Consultant). Industry insights and connections to investors were provided by Rolf Püschel (Manager). As Co-Head of the German M&A team, Dr. Alexander von Friesen (Partner) was responsible for the overall engagement.

Additional PwC services were performed by PwC Tax, led by Dr. Thomas Schänzle (Partner) and Dr. Benjamin Engel (Senior Manager) as well as PwC Assurance, led by Thomas Tilgner (Partner).