Aditya Birla completes purchase of Columbian Chemical

ERJ staff report (DS)

Mumbai, India - Following the granting of all regulatory approvals in seven different jurisdictions , The Aditya Birla Group has announced the completion of its acquisition of the Atlanta-based Columbian Chemicals Company. The acquisition of Columbian Chemicals was made at a price of US $ 875 million. It catapults the Aditya Birla Group to the world's No. 1 carbon black producer.

The newly constituted Board of Directors for Columbian Chemicals is chaired by Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group. Other Directors from the Group, include Mrs. Rajashree Birla, Rajiv Dube, Dr. Santrupt Misra, D. D. Rathi and Kevin Boyle, CEO, Columbian Chemicals.

Kumar Mangalam Birla said, “We view the Carbon Black business as a significant global business in our portfolio. There is a lot to be derived from this coming together of the two entities. Columbian Chemicals' excellent R&D capability, multiple speciality products, customer connect in North America and South America, coupled with committed teams, 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. This, together, with the experience and expertise that our teams have in growing an acquired company's revenues and earnings significantly, should enable us take the Carbon Black business to a far higher plane.”

Dr. Santrupt Misra added, “The completion of the acquisition of Columbian Chemicals is indeed a milestone in our Carbon Black business. At one stroke it doubles our capacity, from 1 million tons to 2 million tons. It extends our geographic reach. Our global footprint now spans 12 countries - India, Thailand, Egypt, China, USA, Brazil, Korea, Spain, Canada, Hungary, Germany and Italy, where we collectively have 17 state-of-the-art manufacturing units. The deal helps in giving us a foothold in the mature markets of North America and strengthens our position in Europe and in emerging markets. Our focus is on unrelenting value creation and optimising costs through innovation in areas such as logistics, sourcing and technology. We expect synergies in excess US $ 50 million.”

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Press release from Aditya Birla