Mexichem agrees to buy compounder AlphaGary for US$300m

Mexican PVC pipe maker Mexichem SAB has signed an agreement to acquire Massachusetts-based plastics compounder AlphaGary from Rockwood Holdings Inc. 

According to Mexichem, which is headquartered in Tlalnepantla, Mexico, the company expects the transaction to close in the first quarter of 2011.

According to a statement posted on the Rockwood Holdings website, the Princeton, N.J.-based company is selling AlphaGary to Mexichem for US$300 million in cash.

“The completion of the sale of this compounding business is another step in concentrating our portfolio on high-margin specialty chemicals and advanced materials businesses,” said Rockwood’s chairman and CEO Seifi Ghasemi. “This sale will further enhance our overall Adjusted EBITDA margins, improve our leverage ratio and help maximize shareholder value.”

AlphaGary, based in Leominster, Massachusetts, makes plastic compounds for the wire and cable industry as well as for the production of PVC.  The company, which has factories in Stoney Creek, Ont., as well as the U.S. and England, is the largest division in Rockwood’s Specialty Compounds segment.