Evonik Finalizes Sale of AlzChem Group

Essen, Germany-based Evonik Industries AG has finalized the sale of the AlzChem Group to the Luxembourg-based private equity fund bluO. The deal was closed on October 27, 2009, after it was approved by the boards and the relevant antitrust authorities. Less debts, the cash sale price amounts to €78.5 million.

The transaction covers the entire AlzChem Group and its companies in Germany and the U.S. The company will remain headquartered in Trostberg, in the district of Traunstein, Bavaria. bluO plans to continue AlzChem’s current corporate strategy and has undertaken neither to call for any layoffs until the end of 2011, nor to close any site in the next five years.

At its Trostberg, Hart, Schalchen, and Waldkraiburg sites, the AlzChem Group produces mainly calcium cyanamide-based precursors and intermediates for further processing in the plastics, agricultural, and pharmaceutical industries. Two distribution joint ventures in the U.S. form part of the group, too. One special feature of the group is that it owns five hydroelectric power plants along the Alz river, which generate some of the energy needed for production.

In fiscal 2008, the group’s 1,300 employees generated sales of about €240 million. Despite the economic downturn, the AlzChem Group has held its ground well in the current and previous fiscal years, achieving significantly better operating results than in earlier years.

bluO is an investment company headquartered in Luxembourg. It invests in medium and large enterprises in the German-speaking countries and the rest of Europe. bluO founders, Dr. Peter Löw, Dr. Martin Vorderwülbecke, and Markus Zöllner, have over the last few years been immensely successful in concluding a number of corporate transactions in the medium-sized company segment.