Nuplex to buy rival Acquos’s Masterbatch units

Nuplex to buy rival Acquos’s Masterbatch units

Aug. 18 (BusinessDesk) – Nuplex Industries Ltd., the specialty chemicals maker, has reached an agreement to buy rival Acquos Pty’s Masterbatch unit.

The acquisition is expected to add to earnings in Nuplex’s 2012 financial year, and the resins maker will make a further announcement once the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission has decided whether to sign off on the deal. No price was disclosed.

“Acquos’s Masterbatch business has an extensive technical portfolio and global best-practice processes, which if acquired would complement our existing operations in this market,” chief executive Emery Severin said in a statement.

The deal comes before Nuplex’s scheduled annual result on Monday, which is forecast to show an 8.8% fall in normalised net profit to $65.2 million, according to broker Forsyth Barr. Still, the broker expects revenue to gain 3.9% to $1.52 billion.

The purchase will be Nuplex’s second in the past two months after it teamed up with RPC Technologies to buy Australia’s glass reinforced plastic pipes maker Fibrelogic Pipe Systems for A$26 million in June.

Privately owned Acquos bought the Masterbatch group in 2006 from Ciba Speciality Chemicals, and later purchased Clariant’s Australian masterbatch business. The unit is one of Australia’s biggest manufacturers of concentrated pigments and additive masterbatches for the plastics industry, according to Acquos’s website.

Nuplex’s shares were unchanged at $2.43 in trading yesterday, and have dropped 31% this year.

(BusinessDesk)

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