Resin distributor Nexeo Solutions has been a public firm for less than a month, but it already has a major new owner.
First Pacific Advisors LLC — an investment firm based in Los Angeles — recently paid $203.7 million to acquire 27.9 percent of all outstanding shares in Nexeo, which is based in The Woodlands, Texas. That equals 24.9 million shares of common Nexeo stock.
Officials with Nexeo and First Pacific could not be reached for comment. First Pacific confirmed the investment in a June 20 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Nexeo went public on June 10 — one day after W.L. Ross Holding Corp. completed its acquisition of a majority stake in the firm. Private equity firm TPG Capital of San Francisco sold a 65 percent stake in Nexeo for almost $1.7 billion. TPG bought Ashland Distribution from Ashland Inc. for almost $1 billion in 2010 and renamed the business Nexeo.
W.L. Ross Holding was an investment vehicle formed in 2014 by private equity firm W.L. Ross & Co. LLC. W.L. Ross Holding was founded by well-known investor Wilbur L. Ross, who now serves as chairman of Nexeo.
First Pacific was founded in 1954 as Shareholders Management Co. The firm now manages a portfolio worth $29 billion.
Nexeo distributes resins, compounds and concentrates for more than 20 suppliers, including Borealis, Sabic, ExxonMobil Chemical, LyondellBasell, BASF and DuPont Co. About 48 percent of Nexeo's $3.9 billion in sales for the year ended Sept. 30 came from plastics distribution, with the rest coming from chemical sales.
Nexeo has had a bumpy few weeks as a public firm, due in part to global economic volatility caused by the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union. The firm's per-share stock price opened at $9.55 on June 10 but was at $9.21 in early trading June 28.
