Broadens Global Leadership in Specialty Chemicals
PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH) and International
Specialty Products Inc. (ISP) today announced that Ashland has
agreed to acquire privately owned ISP, a global specialty chemical
manufacturer of innovative functional ingredients and technologies.
Under the terms of the stock purchase agreement, Ashland will pay
approximately $3.2 billion for the business in an all-cash
transaction. At closing, ISP's advanced product portfolio will
expand Ashland's position in high-growth markets such as personal
care, pharmaceutical and energy. For the 12 months ended March 31,
2011, ISP generated sales of approximately $1.6 billion and
earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization
(EBITDA) of approximately $360 million. The transaction is expected
to be immediately accretive to Ashland's earnings per share.
ISP is a leading global supplier of specialty chemicals and
performance enhancing products for consumer and industrial markets.
Through its unique offerings, ISP will bring high-value water
soluble polymers and other advanced technologies into Ashland's
functional ingredients business, as well as complementary additives
for Ashland's food and beverage, energy, coatings, adhesives and
water treatment markets. The acquisition is expected to
significantly strengthen Ashland's functional ingredients active
patent portfolio and its team of research and development
scientists. The result will be a stronger, global functional
ingredients business with proven technological and application
capabilities to solve customers' unique formulation challenges.
Ashland Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James J. O'Brien
said, "This defining transaction enables us to significantly expand
our market positions in higher margin, higher growth and less
cyclical global markets like personal care and pharmaceuticals. It
broadens Ashland's presence within attractive growth areas like
skin, hair and oral care, which are large and fast-growing segments
of the $5-billion-plus personal care specialty ingredients market.
In addition, we expect to more than double the size of our
highest-margin functional ingredients business."
ISP President and Chief Executive Officer Sunil Kumar said, "We
are very enthusiastic about the opportunity to combine ISP with
Ashland. Both companies have a strong commitment to serving
customers with innovative solutions and technologies. We appreciate
Ashland's passion for this business and we believe this combination
offers tremendous potential for our customers, key business
partners and employees."
O'Brien added, "We look forward to welcoming ISP's employees to
Ashland. Our business models are complementary and we share common
capabilities in formulation, application development and
polymerization. We are disciplined in the underlying processes and
operations that enable us to manufacture best-in-class products.
Given the quality of leadership within both businesses and our
success with the integration of prior acquisitions, we are
confident we will achieve a smooth transition to a combined
company. We are excited about the opportunities for innovation and
growth that lie ahead of us."