The Aditya Birla Group on Tuesday said that it has completed the acquisition of the Atlanta based Columbian Chemicals Company.
The acquisition which catapults the Aditya Birla Group to the world’s top carbon black producer, was made at Rs 3937 crore ($875 million) and has been completed subsequent to having obtained all regulatory approvals, the company said in a press statement.
The group is expecting synergies in excess US $50 million from the deal.
The Board of Directors for Columbian Chemicals will be chaired by Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group. Other Directors on the Board will include Rajashree Birla, Rajiv Dube, Santrupt Misra, D D Rathi and Kevin Boyle, CEO, Columbian Chemicals.
“The Carbon Black business is a significant global business in our portfolio. Columbian Chemicals’ excellent research and development capability, multiple speciality products, will add to the strength of the Carbon Black business. Likewise, our strength in scale economies, managing large capacity plants and managing multiple emerging markets, will be leveraged,” said Kumar Mangalam Birla.
The acquisition will double the group’s capacity from 1 million tonnes to 2 million tonnes and expand the group’s global footprint to 12 countries — India, Thailand, Egypt, China, USA, Brazil, Korea, Spain, Canada, Hungary, Germany and Italy — where the company collectively has 17 state-of-the-art manufacturing units.
The deal will also give the company a foothold in the mature markets of North America and strengthens our position in Europe and in emerging markets.
Aditya Birla Group is a global provider of high quality carbon black additives that cater to the requirements of leading tyre and other rubber manufacturers. Its products also service the ink and plastic segments.
