Polymer company makes transatlantic acquisition
DEESIDE polymer company Revolymer has acquired US business Itaconic Corporation for £8.86m.
A share placing will raise about £4m to finance the deal.
Revolymer has also agreed a deal with a European nicotine gum focused marketer in relation to a potential transfer of its nicotine gum business in exchange for equity in the enlarged marketer company.
The European nicotine gum marketer has EU regulatory approval for its products and an established European customer base, which complements Revolymer’s Canadian customer base.
Listed Revolymer bought the privately-owned business based in New Hampshire for an initial consideration of $7 million (approximately £4.9 million) comprising $3 million in cash and $4 million in new ordinary shares, plus further deferred performance related consideration of up to $6 million payable in new ordinary shares, subject to performance.
Itaconix is a high-growth specialty polymer company that develops and commercialises novel polymers based on its proprietary, commercially-proven and low production cost itaconic acid polymerization technology.
Its patent portfolio comprises nine patent families covering manufacturing processes, product compositions and applications.
It is expected that the placing price will be set at, or around, 37 pence per placing share.
Revolymer’s major shareholders, Woodford Investment Management and IP2IPO Limited, a subsidiary of IP Group plc, will fully participate in the placing by maintaining their respective percentage holdings in the enlarged group.
Woodford has also said it will invest an additional amount with the resulting effect of increasing its holding to over 30%. but less than 50%. of the resulting enlarged issued share capital of the company.
The net proceeds of the placing, in addition to the company’s existing cash resources, will be used to fund the acquisition of Itaconix and provide additional working capital for the combined business and for growth capital.
Revolymer chief executive Kevin Matthews said: “The two transactions represent a key step in realising Revolymer’s strategy of building an innovative and differentiated specialty chemical company delivering high performance ingredients to its target markets through the development of novel polymers, responsive encapsulation and targeted delivery systems.
“Itaconix represents an extremely complementary business in terms of markets and products and also provides a presence in the important North American market.
“In parallel the asset transfer of Revolymer’s nicotine gum business to a larger business focused solely on nicotine gum with a management team that has substantial sector experience should create further strategic focus for both segments of Revolymer’s business.”
