Milliken & Co., a maker of specialty chemicals and plastic additives, acquired colorant supplier Keystone Aniline Corp. in a deal between two privately held, family-owned companies.
No purchase price was disclosed in an April 13 news release. Officials with Milliken in Spartanburg, S.C., said the deal “joins two successful organizations with complementary expertise and capabilities to offer customers a broader array of advanced colorant solutions, technologies and services.”
They added that the acquisition “enables customers to streamline their supply chains by allowing them to obtain a wider range of products from a single source.”
Customers will see enhanced reliability of supply through Milliken's acquisition of Keystone's multiple facilities around the world, officials said. Russ Rudolph, Milliken Performance Colorants & Ingredients vice president, added that “from a business perspective, we look forward to accelerating our growth and creating greater value.”
Both Milliken and Keystone currently provide colorant technologies to the agricultural, plastics, coatings, inks and household institutional and industrial markets. But officials said that their customers rarely overlap because the two companies had specialized in different product areas.
Milliken had focused on polymeric colorants and synthesizing new molecules, they explained, while Keystone's approach had been centered on formulation skills and application development technology.
Chicago-based Keystone was founded in 1920 as a dye producer. The firm now supplies color products for plastics and many other markets.
“This partnership will be a part of Milliken's future growth and success,” Keystone CEO John Andrews said in the release.
P&M Corporate Finance served as financial adviser to Keystone Aniline.
Milliken ranks as one of the world's largest privately held chemicals and textiles makers, with annual sales estimated at more than $3 billion. The firm employs more than 7,000 at more than 35 sites worldwide.
