M&A: 2021 – A year of surprises and major rearrangements

PPCJ’s review of mergers and acquisitions is compiled by industry leading writer, Dr Terry Knowles

With the pandemic conditions persisting throughout 2021, maybe the biggest surprise of all is that there is still a plethora of acquisitions to report as far as the coatings industry is concerned as the end of the calendar year has been reached. In the February 2021 issue of PPCJ I recorded more than 50 acquisitions for 2020 and this year there are more than 60. While there are a few notable absences such as Altana Group and DIC Corporation, there are many fewer entries on the part of AkzoNobel and a return to the list for Sherwin-Williams and Axalta Coating Systems. PPG Industries and Nippon Paint both made key regional acquisitions.

• Sherwin-Williams is the world-leader in paint and coatings sales, and it added one business on either side of the Atlantic in 2021 [22, 23].
• AkzoNobel is Europe’s largest paintmaker and it made one acquisition in the coatings sector, and that was in Colombia [1]. For completeness, it also acquired a stake in Qlayers (not classified here) which is a hightech startup and a previous winner of its Paint The Future challenge.
• Nippon Paint is Asia’s largest paintmaker and it struck twice in relatively quick succession in Europe, firstly with the unexpected takeover of Cromology [14] and then with that of JUB of Slovenia [15].
• Axalta Coating Systems also achieved two acquisitions – one in China [3] and one in the UK [4].

During the year, PPG acquired two automotive coatings companies in Germany [16, 18] as well as a major portfolio of coatings operations in the USA [17]. Typical of New-Year fashion, there were many ‘hangovers’ from the old year, and for PPG that meant completing its surprise acquisition of Tikkurila for once and for all. For AkzoNobel it was the completion of its takeovers of Industrias Titan in Spain and New Nautical Coatings in the USA that lingered.

Read the full report here: M&A 2022