HIG Europe carves out Haltermann Products

Emanuel Eftimiu
20 July 2011

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HIG Europe has acquired Haltermann Products and its two production sites from The Dow Chemical Company for an undisclosed amount.

Dow had acquired the Germany-based producer of hydrocarbon chemicals in 2001 but decided to shed the business in 2008 and focus on its core assets. Merrill Lynch was initially appointed to run the auction but the sales process stalled due to the difficult market conditions. Early in 2011, the in-house M&A team of Dow restarted the sales process.

HIG was attracted to the deal due to Haltermann's strong brand in the chemicals industry, and ability to produce selected refinery products for a broad range of applications. The private equity house invested through its €600m HIG European Partners and appointed Dr Uwe Nickel, formerly board member of Clariant AG, to head up Haltermann.

HIG plans to grow the company internationally in addition to its core German market and will look to continue to extend Haltermann's product portfolio.

Debt
HIG provided bridging finance to support the transaction and aims to refinance the capital structure at a later stage.

Company
Founded in 1898, Haltermann produces hydrocarbon chemicals used in the pharmaceuticals and electronics sectors as well as test and reference fuels for automotive industry. The company operates two production sites in Hamburg and Speyer and can rely on an established blue chip customer base. In 2010, Haltermann generated revenues of €150m employing around 150 staff. Going forward the company will be based in Speyer.

People
Wolfgang Biedermann and Johannes Natterer represented HIG on the transaction.

Advisers
Equity - Freshfields, Julia Winkelmann, Michael Haidinger, Sebastian Köhler (Legal); AC Christes & Partner GmbH, Arne Christes, Daniel Prause (Financial due diligence); WTS Aktiengesellschaft Steuerberatungsgesellschaft, Barbara Degen, Eva Doye (Tax); URS Deutschland, Hayo Köhler (Environmental due diligence); EMC2, Marc Fischer, Peter Sander (Commercial due diligence); Uhlmann, Ludewig & Menzel GmbH, Wolfgang Menzel, Ralf Kemkes (Pension due diligence).