Pigments divestment completes Clariant sales

Clariant has agreed to sell 80% of its Pigments business to a consortium made up of German pigments specialist Heubach Group and private investment firm SK Capital Partners, which owns many other chemical industry operations. This should close in 1H 2022.

CEO Conrad Keijzer described this as a final step in the divestment programme and portfolio repositioning the company originally announced in July 2018. Clariant will now focus on its three core ‘business areas’ in higher-value speciality chemicals of Care Chemicals, Catalysis and Natural Resources, although it retains a 20% stake in the ultimate holding company for the Pigments business. It had earlier divested the Healthcare Packaging and Masterbatches businesses.

The deal gives Pigments, which employs over 3,000 people worldwide, an enterprise value of CHF 805-855 million, depending on an earn-out payment contingent on its 2021 financial performance. This represents a multiple of 10.7-11.4x stand-alone adjusted 12-month EBITDA as of April 2021. It does not include the share of the Pigments business’s participation in Infraserv Höchst, the company that manages operations at the giant Höchst site near Frankfurt.