New owner for Innophos

The board of Innophos Holdings has unanimously agreed to be acquired by private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners. The $32/share deal equates to a transaction value of about $932 million, including debt, and represents an 18% premium to the 30-trading day volume-weighted average closing share price before speculation about this began on 9 September.

New Jersey-based Innophos describes itself as “a leading international producer of essential ingredients”. It supplies these to multiple end use market, led by food, health and nutrition but also including water treatment, among others, via its Industrial Specialties business unit.

CEO Kim Ann Mink said that the board had reached the decision after a long period of strategic review. While it believed that its ongoing transformational strategy was the right path forward, executing this “in an increasingly volatile macroeconomic and complex financial environment as a small-cap public company remains challenging and could take longer than initially expected”.

The agreement includes a 30-day ‘go-shop’ period to 20 November, during which Innophos can solicit alternative acquisition proposals and potentially enter into negotiations. Assuming this does not yield an alternative, the deal is expected to close in Q1 2020.