Charterhouse buys Armacell for €500m

Ellie Pullen
30 April 2013

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Charterhouse has agreed to acquire German insulation company Armacell from Investcorp in a €500m secondary buyout.

Charterhouse's investment in Armacell is believed to have been made via the firm's Charterhouse Capital Partners IX (CCP IX) fund, which closed on €4bn in 2009.

BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse and HSBC will reportedly be providing a €350m covenant-light senior and second lien debt package for the deal, equivalent to around 5x EBITDA.

The original buyout of Armacell by Investcorp was backed by a €320m mezzanine and senior debt package from BNP Paribas and CIBC World Markets.

Previous funding
Investcorp acquired Armacell in 2007 in a €400m SBO that saw CVC Capital Partners and Gilde Investment Management fully exit the company.

Prior to this, CVC and Gilde backed the €304m management buyout of Armacell in 2000. The business was originally the insulation products branch of Armstrong World Industries – then known as Armaflex. The company was renamed Armacell Enterprise GmbH following the spin-off.

Gilde acquired a 48% stake in the company, according to unquote" data, while CVC acquired a 42% stake and the remaining 10% was bought by Armacell's management team.

Company
Armacell is based in Münster, Germany, and became an independent company in 2000. The company it span out of, Armaflex, was founded in 1954 as the insulation product division of Armstrong World Industries, which was established in Pennsylvania, US, in 1860.

The business specialises in engineered foams and the flexible technical insulation material Armaflex Ultima, a product that has a low smoke density and is therefore designed to lessen the risk of death by smoke inhalation in the event of a building fire.

Armacell's current turnover stands at €430m, a 30% increase compared with revenues at the time of Investcorp's takeover. Turnover in 2011 was recorded at €448m.

Armacell's staff numbers have also risen since Investcorp's acquisition to 2,300.

People
Patrick Mathieu is the CEO of Armacell. Gordon Bonnyman and Lionel Giacomotto are respectively executive chairman and managing director at Charterhouse. Gilbert Kamieniecky is the principal of Investcorp's European corporate investments team.