Borchers Americas Inc. has expanded into barrier packaging resins with the acquisition of Owensboro Specialty Polymers Inc. of Owensboro, Ky.
Borchers, based in Westlake, Ohio, is known as a producer of additives for the paints and coatings industry. It makes and sells dispersants, rheology modifiers, driers, flow and levelling modifiers, and release agents.
"Borchers' acquisition offers strategic growth opportunities for both companies," said OSP President Eric Squire in a Nov. 6 news release.
"OSP's commanding position in North American [polyvinylidene dichloride] barrier coatings enhances Borchers' portfolio, and the OSP facility provides a considerable increase in North American manufacturing capacity," Squire said.
The acquisition was effective Oct. 31. Grace Matthews Inc. of Milwaukee was financial adviser to OSP. Mayer Brown LLP was legal adviser for Borchers.
OSP lately has been an employee-owned company but in its 59-year history it has been owned by different multinational companies, including Dow Chemical Co. and W.R. Grace & Co.
Grace built the Owensboro polymerization plant in 1958 and in 1962 began making Daran brand PVdC latex. It hiked its stake in that polymer in 1986 when it bought Dow's Saran PVdC latex business. After two ownership changes of the Owensboro business, Dow became its owner through an acquisition in 1997. Grace then bought the plant in 2000 before selling it to a private owner in 2005, at which time the business took on the OSP name. In 2010, the company became employee owned and three years later acquired Dow's Serfene PVdC business, formerly owned by Rohm and Haas.
PVdC latex is used to coat plastic film and paper to provide a water and oxygen barrier. The coating is odorless and resists abrasion and oils.
OSP also produces polyvinyl acetate latex for specialty adhesives and its lineup includes other specialty polymers. The production plant contains reactors up to 8,000 gallons in capacity.
"This strategic acquisition supports our growth objectives in core markets while providing growth opportunities in adjacent end markets, including paper coatings, flexible packaging and the oil & gas industry," said Borchers Americas President and CEO Devlin Riley in a news release.
Borchers Americas is a subsidiary of Borchers GmbH of Langenfeld, Germany. New York private equity Jordan Co. bought the parent company in 2017 from another private equity, New York-based Apollo Global Management LLC. The German parent's origins date back to 1807. Its additives business opened in 1920 when it began producing driers for coatings. It was owned by Bayer AG in 1986, but OM Group Inc., a metal-based chemical company in Cleveland bought it in 2007. OM Group was subsequently purchased by Apollo Global in 2015.