LBO France to buy Chryso from Wendel's Materis

The offer equates to 8.3x Chryso's 2013 EBITDA. The transaction is expected to take place in the second half of the year and would allow Materis to repay a significant portion of the shareholder loan provided by industrial holding Wendel as part of a larger refinancing of the business.

Prior to the offer being agreed upon, Materis refinanced Chryso based on a 4.5x EBITDA leverage ratio. The refinancing comprised a seven-year senior bullet term loan of €165m at Euribor +4.75%; a six-year revolving credit facility of €38m at Euribor +4%; and incremental uncommitted facilities of €42m to finance acquisitions and capital expenditures.

LBO France had sold Materis to Wendel for €2.07bn in 2006, following two failed bids by BC Partners and Eurazeo. Leverage was understood to stand at €1.6bn at the time.

Wendel has managed to capitalise on appetite from private equity firms to progressively realise its investment in Materis. The company sold its subsidiary Kerneos to Astorg at the end of last year for €600m and then sold its Parex division to CVC for €880m in March this year. Wendel remains invested in Materis, which now focuses on its paint activities.

Company
Founded in 1942 and based in Issy les Moulineaux, Chryso develops chemical additives used in the production of construction materials. The company employs 1,000 staff and has production and sales subsidiaries in 14 countries.

Chryso generated an EBITDA of around €35m in 2013.

People
Thierry Bernard is the CEO of Chryso.

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• Industrials
• France
• France
• LBO France