Asahi buys Johnson Matthey's gold & silver refining business for $186 mn

Johnson Matthey, the UK-based speciality chemicals and sustainable technologies company, has agreed to divest its gold and silver refining business to Asahi Holdings Inc (Asahi), a collector, refiner and recycler of precious and rare metals from waste materials, for Pound 118 million ($ 186 million) in cash, subject to typical post-closing adjustments. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of March 2015.
 
Johnson Matthey’s gold and silver refining business is a refiner of primary and secondary gold and silver materials. It serves customers globally from refineries in Salt Lake City, USA and Brampton, Canada. The business also provides investment casting services from its St Catharines facility in Canada. In total, the business employs approximately 340 people.
 
In the financial year ended 31st March 2014 the gold and silver refining business had sales excluding the value of precious metals (sales) of Pound 44 million and for the six months ended September 30, 2014, its sales were Pound 19 million. Its return on sales is typically around 25 percent.
 
Robert MacLeod, chief executive, Johnson Matthey, said, “The divestment of the gold and silver refining business is in line with our long term strategy to focus on areas where we can use our expertise in chemistry and its applications to deliver high technology solutions or that provide a strategic service to the wider Johnson Matthey group.”