VanDeMark Chemical Inc. Acquires Framochem
15 August 2014 VanDeMark Chemical announced it has acquired Framochem Kft, a manufacturer of phosgene products based in Hungary.
“This acquisition combines a North American leader with a European leader to give us greater size and scale across more geographies,” VanDeMark CEO Michael Kucharski said in a statement. “By combining these two companies, we are marrying VanDeMark’s particular strengths in the custom side of the market with Framochem’s substantial offering in the catalog chemical business – all of which makes a compelling, single-source offering for our customers for phosgene products worldwide.”
Together, VanDeMark and Framochem will produce a combined total of 22,000 tons in annual production capacity for phosgene.
Christopher P. Fuller, managing partner of Uni-World Capital, VanDeMark’s largest private equity owner and sponsor of the transaction, said,“In a sense, we are reuniting these two companies – along with the business rationale and global customer base – since both VanDeMark and Framochem were originally part of the French state-owned enterprise SNPE.”
Framochem was a subsidiary of Isochem S.A.S., a company of the Munich-based Aurelius Group. As part of the transaction, VanDeMark has also acquired a sales office in Germany.
Located in Kazincbarcika in Northern Hungary, Framochem employs more than 100 people and operates six multi-purpose production lines at its plant.
To finance the Framochem acquisition, Uni-World secured senior debt financing from Madison Capital Funding and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, as well as mezzanine financing from Prudential Capital Group.
In addition, VanDeMark is raising new equity capital to fund the acquisition of Framochem. Along with Uni-World itself and VanDeMark management, investors will include Prudential Capital Group, Hamilton Lane and Madison Capital Funding.
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