Arsenal Capital Partners Announces Acquisition of Plasticolors

Arsenal Capital Partners, a leading New York-based private equity firm that invests in middle-market speciality industrial, healthcare and financial services companies, announced yesterday, May 4, 2012, the concurrent acquisition of Plasticolors, Inc and Evonik Industries’ Colortrend global colourants business to create Chromaflo Technologies, the largest independent global pigment dispersion platform.

Headquartered in Ashtabula, Ohio, Plasticolors, Inc was founded in 1970 and is a leading supplier of pigment and chemical dispersions to the thermoset composites and industrial paint and coatings industries. The company’s colourants can be found in a wide variety of products including industrial coatings, interior and exterior automotive components, epoxy flooring, electrical and appliance housings and a myriad of other paints, coatings and moulded composite applications.
Earlier in March, Arsenal Capital announced the pending acquisition of Evonik Industries’ Colortrend global colourants business. Chromaflo Technologies will be headquartered in Ashtabula, Ohio and will have production facilities in the USA, Canada, The Netherlands and Australia. Chromaflo Technologies also has sales and technical capabilities throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia, China, Malaysia, and India.

"We partnered with the Plasticolors’ team led by CEO, Scott Becker, to bring together these two complementary players in the colourants industry,” said Timothy Zappala, a Partner at Arsenal and Co-Head of the firm’s Specialty Industrials Group. "Colortrend provides colour systems to the architectural and industrial coatings markets while Plasticolors is the leading provider of custom pigment solutions to thermoset plastics and industrial coatings markets. The combination creates a leading independent global pigment dispersion platform positioning the new company to address the increasingly complex customer technical requirements in a multitude of applications and end markets.”

Scott Becker, who will lead Chromaflo Technologies as CEO, brings a wealth of experience in the colourants marketplace. "Chromaflo Technologies’ diverse manufacturing capability, broad base of technologies and strong customer focus by an experienced team will enable us to meet customers’ varied requirements on both a local and global basis. We will be transferring Plasticolors’ technologies for the thermoset plastics markets to the operations in Europe and Asia Pacific to serve customers in these regions. Additionally, the technologies developed for in-plant tinting for industrial coating applications will be made available in these regions. I look forward to working with the Arsenal team to further build Chromaflo Technologies’ market and application reach,” said Mr Becker.
"Because of Arsenal’s deep expertise in the speciality chemicals sector we were able to complete this innovative transaction and create Chromaflo Technologies,” said John Televantos, a Partner at Arsenal and Co-Head of the firm’s Specialty Industrials Group. "With this merger we have created a company with the scale and range of product technologies that has the immediate critical mass to be a leading global player in the pigments dispersion market.”

About Arsenal Capital Partners
Arsenal Capital Partners is a leading New York-based private equity firm that invests in middle-market specialty industrial, healthcare and financial services companies. Arsenal makes investments in sectors where the firm has significant prior knowledge and experience. Arsenal targets businesses that have the potential for further value creation by working closely with management to accelerate growth and leverage the firm’s operational improvement capabilities. Arsenal currently has US$800M of committed equity capital. For additional information on Arsenal Capital Partners, please visit www.arsenalcapital.com.