US buy for Italmatch

Italmatch Chemicals, a speciality chemicals company focused on additives for water and process treatment, oil and gas, industrial lubricants and plastics, has followed up previous acquisitions with Water Science Technologies (WST), which is based at Birmingham, Alabama, and supplies chemicals and blends. No financial details were disclosed.

WST has about $75 million/year in revenues, 40 employees and four facilities across North America. Italmatch said that this would further strengthen its position in the North American oil and gas market, broaden its portfolio in industrial water treatment, and will also add “advanced in- house lab equipment, competence and logistic service capabilities” to its existing R&D capabilities.

Danny McCaul, CEO of Italmatch Chemicals USA, said: “This acquisition represents another important step for Italmatch growth in the North American market, in line with the Group objectives in North America in its strategic sectors, starting from industrial water solutions, where the companies have a complementary product range.”

In Q1, Italmatch completed the acquisition of BWA Water Additives of Manchester, UK, which was also active in the oil and gas, industrial water treatment and desalination industries. This was similarly motivated by the aim of “expanding and broadening our current production and marketing capabilities for water management chemicals”. Shortly after it also bought Eco Inhibitors, a Norwegian technology start-up producing eco-friendly hydrate inhibitors for oil and gas applications.

Genoa-based Italmatch itself dates back to 1997 and now has about 900 employees spread over 20 sites across Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific. It has belonged to private equity firm Bain Capital since 2018.