Korean firm buys Verdant

Korea’s Samyang Holdings has acquired Verdant Specialty Solutions from private equity firm OpenGate Capital for about $250 million. Texas-based Verdant mainly makes amphoteric surfactants for personal care products, plus non-ionic surfactants for industrial applications. It has revenues of about $210 million/year, and employs some 300 in the US, the UK and Germany.

Samyang said that this buy is in line with a “push to strengthen its specialty business interests and accelerate its global operations” as it targets sales of $4.6 billion by 2025. It entered the speciality personal care business in 2017 by acquiring fellow Korean firm KCI in 2017 and said that it is “anticipating synergy and strengthened competitiveness between Verdant and KCI based on their complementary product portfolios”.