Equity group Morgan plans to acquire LTB
ATLANTA - Morgan Equities Group Inc. of Atlanta plans to buy American-owned but China-based tooling firm LTB Manufacturing.
The companies want to finalize terms by March, said Fred Narcross, chief executive officer of LTB's holding company, ACA Asia Ltd. But, in a Jan. 12 telephone interview, he said it is hard to tell how long due diligence will take.
Founded in 2005, LTB has a handful of employees at its injection tool shop in Shenzhen, China.
Narcross said the company also outsources injection molding work to companies in the Shenzhen area. LTB offers molding on presses with clamping forces up to 2,750 tons, overmolding, insert molding, two-component molding and in-mold decoration, according to its Web site. Its services include clean room molding for medical and optical parts.
Meanwhile, Shenzhen-based ACA Asia is selling two other units to Morgan Equities. Morgan Equities CEO C.M. Benedict said the purchases present ``the advantage of an immediate presence in the Chinese community via established and respected entities'' and will diversify Morgan's holdings.
Morgan Equities is an Internet company. Its stock is traded over the counter through pink sheets.
ACA's Narcross expects synergy from the acquisitions: ``Essentially, we bring solid operations to Morgan, increase Morgan's tradable value and then raise capital for investment in the acquired companies.
``Once given funding, LTB can expand its tooling operations and establish in-house injection molding,'' he said.
DSM composites unit adding plant in China
SHANGHAI, CHINA - Banking on strong growth expected in China's plastic composites market, DSM Composite Resins AG plans to double its sizing capacity with a new plant to be launched at its Shanghai site in the second half of this year.
The $8 million facility will produce polymer-based emulsions for glass fiber used in thermoset- and thermoplastic-reinforced parts. It will serve the Chinese market and other parts of Asia, according to the firm's parent, DSM NV of Heerlen, the Netherlands.
While glass fiber's global market growth is estimated at about 5 percent per year, China's market is soaring 10-15 percent per year, DSM said. Supply in China is being provided by strong Chinese producers and global firms expanding fast within the country.
Innovene sells Amtuf to Washington Penn
WASHINGTON, PA. - Washington Penn Plastic Co. has added to its line of polypropylene compounds by buying the Amtuf-brand product line from Innovene USA LLC.
No purchase price was disclosed in the deal, which includes customer lists and product formulations, but no machinery or physical property.
Amtuf products are based on thermoplastic olefin-grade PP and are used in automotive exteriors. Washington Penn President Paul Cusolito said the purchase will allow his Washington firm to expand in that sector, where it already has a large presence.
Chicago-based Innovene USA is part of the business that British Petroleum plc sold to Ineos Group for $9 billion in October.
Cusolito declined to provide annual sales data for the Amtuf business. Washington Penn is one of North America's 30 largest compounders. The firm is part of Audia Group, also in Washington. Audia also owns concentrate maker Uniform Color Co. of Holland, Mich., and resin distributor Southern Polymer Inc. of Atlanta.
Audia also includes Epsilon Products Co., a unit that operates a PP plant in Marcus Hook, Pa., in a joint venture with Philadelphia-based Sunoco Chemicals.
The acquisition is the first in compounding for Washington Penn since it bought the compounding business of Jones Plastic and Engineering Co. of Frankfort, Ky., in mid-2000. The firm also was involved in Audia's 2002 acquisition of Southern Polymer.
Washington Penn stayed busy in 2005 by adding 50 million pounds of compounding capacity at a plant in Frankfort.
Dow Chemical boosts development of TPUs
MIDLAND, MICH. - Dow Chemical Co. has upgraded its thermoplastic urethane development sites in Freeport and La Porte, Texas.
A new mini-line has been added at the Freeport plant to increase productivity and flexibility. The line is ``more geared to innovation and product development on a smaller scale,'' said Ravi Shanker, global business director for specialty copolymers.
Dow also added a program for production-scale development at the La Porte site, which will give the company broader and faster TPU development, a Dow spokeswoman said.
Dow plans to have the mini-line and new program operating during the first quarter.
TPUs are part of the specialty copolymers group, which is one of three in Dow's Specialty Plastics & Elastomers business; the others are performance elastomers, and synthetic rubber and Nordel.
While the business is not as large as others in the Midland-based company, it's been growing since July, when Dow bought the Engage polyolefin elastomer, Nordel ethylene propylene diene monomer and Tyrin chlorinated polyethylene product lines from the DuPont Dow Elastomers LLC joint venture, which was being disbanded by parents Dow and DuPont Co.
Since then, Dow has been investing in the plastics and specialty elastomers business, expecting growth of 5-8 percent across all product lines globally.
PlasticsJobs partners with China's AMC Ltd.
BRENTWOOD, TENN. - Executive recruiting firm PlasticsJobs by Gros Executive Search is partnering with a Chinese headhunting firm to find candidates in Asia and North America.
Brentwood-based Gros has entered an alliance with Associated Management Consultants Ltd. in Beijing. AMC has four recruiters who specialize in industrial sectors, in offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China, along with additional research staff, according to a news release from PlasticsJobs.
``We work with several companies who have a presence in China,'' said PlasticsJobs President Dennis Gros, adding that the Associated Management partnership will help his firm broaden its offerings to U.S. clients with plants in China.