Skip to main content

Brenntag amends its structure

Brenntag has detailed a planned “strategic transformation and growth path”, including updated mid-term targets, at a Capital Markets Day in London. Among other things this will see “the further operational and legal disentanglement” of Brenntag Essentials and Brenntag Specialties, though not the full separation some shareholders had been demanding.

Brenntag sees off ‘activist’ candidates

At their AGM on 15 June, Brenntag shareholders voted for the company’s supervisory board candidates and rejected alternatives from ‘activist’ investor PrimeStone Capital, which has been agitating for a radical change in strategy. All of the motions proposed by the board were also approved, including a €2/share divided payout.

Richard Ridinger was re-elected as a member of the supervisory board with 62.71% of the votes cast, while Sujatha Chandrasekaran was newly elected with 61.79%. At its constituent meeting following the AGM, the supervisory board elected Ridinger as chairman.

Singapore advance for Brenntag

Brenntag has opened its new pharmaceutical application development centre in the Singapore Science Park. This will be the company’s first pharma R&D facility anywhere, as well as part of Brenntag Specialties’ global network of 82 innovation and application development centres.

“Singapore is an ideal location for our first pharmaceutical application development centre, given its thriving ecosystem of R&D partners, technology providers and talent,” said Romain Girard, president of pharma Asia-Pacific at Brenntag Specialties. T

New PE owner for Univar

Private equity giant Apollo has agreed to acquire the majority of Univar Solutions in an all-cash deal that values the company at about $8.1 billion. There is also an unspecified minority investment from a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

Shareholders will receive $36.15/share in cash, which represents a 20.6% premium to the company's undisturbed closing stock price on 22 November 2022 or 33.6% on the volume-weighted average for the 30 trading days ending on that date.

Second shareholder asks Brenntag to split

Engine Capital, an investment firm with a 1% stake in Brenntag, has become the second to advise the company to separate out its two businesses. PrimeStone, which owns 2%, had urged similar action in December, when Brenntag itself was in discussions with Univar Solutions about a possible merger.

Brenntag in global tracking project

Brenntag has revealed that it is collaborating with Chicago-based Project44 to create a platform via which all of its global tracking data, regardless of where shipments are and what mode is being used, will be fed into a single data management system.

The project, Brenntag said, will enable it to “enhance supply chain visibility and multiple value streams such as customer track-and-trace, analytical products and cost-efficient end-to-end supply chain planning”. Project44’s platform tracks more than 1 billion shipments/year for over 1,200 global companies in multiple industries.

Brenntag ends Univar merger discussions

Univar Solutions has confirmed that Brenntag has ended discussions with it about a potential merger. The company said that it is “committed to acting in the best interest of its stockholders and will continue discussions relating to other indications of interest that have been received with respect to a potential transaction”.

Brenntag originally opened discussions with Univar in November. The deal would have brought together the world’s largest and second largest chemical distributors. Brenntag and Univar had sales of €14.4 billion and $9.5 billion respectively in 2021.

Subscribe to Brenntag