branding is on the increase again, andas branding is used, use of colourincreases. PolyOne expects theOnColor system to eventually be usedfor as much as 70% of the company’soverall colour matches.

Plastics News, 19 Jul 2004, Website:http://www.plasticsnews.com

Rockwood buys Sachtleben & JohnsonMatthey pigment businesses

The Rockwood group has completedtwo major acquisitions in the past twomonths. On 4 August 2004, itcompleted the EUR 2.25 bn acquisitionof four businesses from DynamitNobel, an intermediate holdingcompany within the MG Technologiesgroup (formerly Metallgesellschaft,headquartered in Frankfurt). Combinedannual sales revenues of these fourbusinesses amounted to about US$1.6 billion in 2003 – more than doubleRockwood’s own sales revenue. On 1September 2004, Rockwoodcompleted the acquisition of JohnsonMatthey’s Pigments & Dispersionsunit. That transaction was valued at £27 million, payable in cash.

Johnson Matthey had declared itsintention to divest its Pigments &Dispersions business last Novemberand a definitive agreement withRockwood was signed on 23 July,subject to clearance by the Germananti-trust authorities. At the same timeas putting its Pigments & Dispersionsbusiness up for sale, JohnsonMatthey had also notified its intentionto sell off its Structural Ceramicsbusiness unit, which is one of the twoleading global suppliers of milledzircon opacifiers. Johnson Matthey’szircon processing plants in ninedifferent countries have a totalcombined capacity of 175,000 t/y,representing about 17% of total globalcapacity for milled zircon. The plan tosell off both the Pigments &Dispersions business and theStructural Ceramics business were inline with Johnson Matthey’s long-termstrategy to focus on its core activities– Catalysts, Precious Metals andPharmaceutical Materials. However,the Structural Ceramics business willstay in Johnson Matthey’s hands. Acompany spokesman noted: “Wehave received offers for the StructuralCeramics business, which is currentlybenefiting from an upturn, with profits

well ahead of last year. The Boardconsidered that the offers received forStructural Ceramics did not provideadequate value, particularly in view ofthe favourable outlook for thatbusiness. Consequently, the businesswill be retained for the time being.”

The Pigments & Dispersions unitwas part of Johnson Matthey’sColours & Coatings Division. Itmanufactures and sells specialistinorganic pigments to the paint, woodcoatings, printing inks and plasticsindustries. Its product portfolioincludes transparent iron oxides,mixed metal oxides and the Solaplexrange based on a new chromophore,Pigment Yellow 216. It has factories atKidsgrove (near Stoke-on-Trent) andSudbury (Suffolk) in England and atBraeside (near Melbourne) inAustralia, as well as a number ofsales offices around the world. ThePigments & Dispersions unit employsabout 280 people altogether.

In the financial year to end-March2004, the Pigments & Dispersions unitreported total sales of £37.8 M,including £7.9 M worth of sales toother Johnson Matthey businesses. Itreported an operating profit of £2.5 Mfor the year.

Sachtleben Chemie, one of theworld’s top ten TiO2 pigmentproducers, was part of the DynamitNobel package of assets acquired byRockwood. It operates a 100,000 t/ysulfate-route TiO2 plant at Duisburg-Homberg and is renowned as a globalmarket leader in the supply of anatasegrades for the textiles industry.Sachtleben is also in the vanguard ofresearch and development work onnanoparticulate TiO2, though it stillderives the major portion of its salesrevenue from TiO2 pigments forapplications in the paint and plasticsindustries. In addition, Sachtlebenmakes and sells water-treatmentchemicals. It also retains a 40% stakein a Chinese lithopone pigmentsproducer.

Both acquisitions were funded byaffiliates of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts(KKR), Rockwood’s existing majorityshareholder; and by affiliates of CSFBPrivate Equity, part of Credit SuisseFirst Boston’s Alternative CapitalDivision (ACD); and by borrowingsunder a new senior secured creditfacility and a new senior subordinatedcredit facility.

Rockwood Pigments was already

the world’s second largest supplier ofiron oxide pigments as a result oftaking over Laporte’s business in thisfield. With the recent acquisition ofSachtleben, Rockwood has alsobecome an important supplier of whitepigments. For MG Technologies, thesale of Sachtleben and the otherDynamit Nobel assets represents oneof the last stages in its campaign todivest itself of all its chemicalbusinesses so as to concentrate on itsengineering activities.

TiO2 Worldwide Update, May/Aug 2004, 12 (3/4), 46 &Press release from: Rockwood Specialties Group Inc,100 Overlook Center, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA, Tel;+1 609 514 0300, Website: http://www.rocksp.com(23 Jul 2004)

Tiso takes majority stake in Idwala

The “black empowerment” TisoGroup, together with the Tiso PrivateEquity Fund, has acquired a 52% inIdwala Industrial Holdings Pty Ltd forRand 938 M. Idwala makes groundcalcium carbonate (GCC) products aswell as burnt and hydrated lime andmagnetite in Kwazulu-Natal and in theNorthern Cape regions of South Africa.

Industrial Minerals, Jun 2004, (441), 12

Votorantim acquisition receives CADE’sblessing despite Brasoxidos’ protest

CADE (the Brazilian anti-trust authority)has approved the acquisition ofParaibuna by Votorantim Metais fromParanapanema. In so doing, itdismissed a petition from Brasoxidosprotesting that Votorantim is now amonopoly supplier to Brasoxidos aswell as being a dominant competitor.Votorantim already owned CMM andthe acquisition of Paraibuna meansthat it is now the only producer of zincmetal in Brazil. Votorantim also hasan 85% share of the Brazilian zincoxide market; Brasoxidos has a 10%market share. (See ‘Focus onPigments’, Feb 2004, 3).

CADE upheld Votorantim’s claimthat it cannot exert undue control as a“monopoly supplier” because the priceof its zinc metal is determined bytrading on the world market (namelythe London Metal Exchange) andBrazilian customers can readily buyzinc from alternative suppliers in otherSouth American countries.

BNAmericas Metals News, 27 May 2004, (Website:http://www.Bnamericas.com)

4 SEPTEMBER 2004

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