Materials firms Ingenia Polymers and IKA Group have formed a joint venture to make and sell PVC additives.
The new JV will be located in the Houston area, where Ingenia is based. In a news release, officials said the JV will be focused on stabilizers and other additives for the North American PVC market.
Ingenia will provide operation and development for the JV, with IKA, based in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Germany, handling technical service, marketing and production/formulation technology.
"After forming IKA Group in 2020 via a management buy-in, this important investment marks the next milestone for our ambitious international growth strategy," IKA CEO Alexander Hofer said in the release.
IKA senior vice president Tony Butt will serve as president and CEO of the new venture. He has more than 30 years of experience in stabilizers and other PVC additives.
"The teaming up of Ingenia and IKA is a perfect combination, as both groups enrich each other and will allow broad synergies," Butt said.
Ingenia president Thanassi Lefas added that the JV "will also be an important step towards a diversification in the portfolio of Ingenia." Operations for the new JV are expected to begin in early 2023.
The original IKA business was founded in 1994, making stabilizers and other PVC additives. The firm doubled production in 2004 and opened a new large-scale production plant in 2021.
Ingenia CEO John Lefas founded the firm as WedTech Inc. in 1986. Ingenia makes compounds as well as white, black, color and additive concentrates at plants in the U.S., Canada and Saudi Arabia. The firm also offers services including blending and size reduction. Markets served by Ingenia include rotational molding, pipe and film.
In early 2020, Ingenia acquired a toll compounding plant in LaPorte,Texas, from LyondellBasell Industries. The plant had operated as Bayshore Industrial and was acquired by LBI in 2018 as part of its purchase of A. Schulman Inc.