Oct 29 2008
H.I.G. Capital, LLC (“H.I.G.”), a leading global private equity firm based in Miami, Florida, announced today that it acquired Petroferm, Inc. (“Petroferm”), a specialty chemicals company, through one of its portfolio companies, H.I.G. Chemicals Holdings Corp. The acquisition includes the Lambent Technologies division.
Petroferm is a leading producer of specialty chemicals, serving a wide variety of end markets and blue-chip customers. Its products include surfactants, esters and alkoxylates, as well as specialty cleaning solutions, fuel additives and oilfield chemicals. The Company’s manufacturing facility is located in Gurnee, Illinois.
H.I.G. believes the Petroferm business is an excellent complement to its industry-leading North American oleochemical business, Uniqema Americas1, which was acquired from Croda International, PLC earlier this year. H.I.G. plans to maintain the two as distinct operating subsidiaries. However, customer and end-market overlap will provide substantial opportunities to grow through coordinated efforts. The two businesses will have combined sales in excess of $300 million.
Bob Drennan, Chairman of H.I.G. Chemicals Holdings Corp, said “This investment is highly beneficial to both Petroferm’s customers and its employees. With H.I.G.’s strong financial backing and the affiliation with their oleochemicals business, we believe we are uniquely positioned to make the investments required to grow the business in response to customers’ needs and to offer a broad portfolio of specialty chemicals.”
H.I.G. is partnering with Petroferm’s current management team to complete its second acquisition in the chemical industry this year. Rick Rosen, a Managing Director of H.I.G., commented: “We are excited to partner with Petroferm’s outstanding management team and to work with them to grow the business. We see tremendous opportunity in the specialty chemicals industry and are confident in Petroferm’s future success.”