Chroma, Ascend set the pace for first-half materials deals

Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, plastics materials firms managed to complete a few M&A deals in the first half of 2020.

Chroma Color Corp. and Ascend Performance Materials each wrapped up a pair of deals in the first six months of the year. McHenry, Ill.-based Chroma first bought fellow color concentrate maker Plastics Color Corp. of Calumet City, Ill., then added compounder and dyemaker Epolin Chemicals LLC of Newark, N.J.

The PCC deal included plants in Calumet City, Ill., and in Asheboro, N.C. The Calumet City plant now has been closed.

Chroma CEO Tom Bolger said that PCC "has a strong base of customers and is known for solution-based products and strong service, both being pillars of Chroma's offerings."

"Their presence in medical and pharmaceutical products, food packaging, CPG, and construction applications will bring more technologies and know-how to Chroma," he added.

Officials said that Epolin has global leadership in near-infrared absorbing dyes. They added that the deal for Epolic expands Chroma's product offerings in sensors, security inks, eyewear and similar markets.

Epolin will operate as an independent subsidiary of Chroma. The acquisition "will contribute significantly to Chroma Color's leadership in the colorants and additives industry," CEO Tom Bolger said.

Chroma now has made three acquisitions since mid-2018, when investment firm Arsenal Capital Partners of New York combined Chroma with materials firms Carolina Color, Breen Color Concentrates and Breen's Hudson Color unit to create a larger firm.

Houston-based Ascend — a leading maker of nylon 6/6 resins and compounds — completed a pair of international deals in the first half. The firm first acquired Italian materials firms Poliblend and Esseti Plast GD from D'Ottavio Group. The deal included a manufacturing facility in Mozzate, Italy.

Esseti Plast is a producer of masterbatch concentrates. Poliblend makes compounds and concentrates based on virgin and recycled grades of nylon 6 and 6/6, polybutylene terephthalate and acetal.

Ascend President and CEO Phil McDivitt told Plastics News that the part of the Poliblend/Esseti deal that he was "most excited about" was the firms' work with recycled content.

Ascend followed that deal by entered the Asian manufacturing field with the acquisition of a compounding plant in China. The firm bought the plant from Chinese firms NCM (Changshu) Co. Ltd. and Tehe Engineering Plastic (Suzhou) Co. Ltd. The plant is located in Changshu Yushan High-Tech Industrial Park, about 60 miles outside of Shanghai.

"We've had a strategy to become more locally based, and this will be a good location for us," McDivitt said. "It's a nice facility from a manufacturing standpoint that's closer to our customers and also offers us technology and R&D."

The plant operates two twin-screw extrusion lines and has room for growth, officials said. It covers about 200,000 square feet, including warehousing space.

A pair of recycling -based deals also were inked in the first half. Shortly before its own initial public offering, Chicago-based decking maker Azek Co. purchased PVC recycler and compounder Return Polymers Inc. of Ashland, Ohio.

The deal adds PVC to Azek's stable of recycling operations, which the company launched last year when it opened a polyethylene recycling plant in Wilmington, Ohio. Azek officials said the acquisition of Return Polymers will help the firm "accelerate its mission of sustainability" through in-house PVC recycling capabilities.

Return employs about 80. The employees and existing management team will remain, including President David Foell, who will continue to manage day-to-day operations.

In another recycling deal, Montreal-based packaging firm TC Transcontinental Packaging acquired the assets of Enviroplast Inc., a plastics recycler based in Quebec.

The equipment will be used by TC Transcontinental to convert plastic waste into plastic granules. The material will be sourced from sorting facilities, commercial, industrial and agricultural areas.

TC Transcontinental purchased the assets and is looking to hire nine employees to start operations and continue to build, spokeswoman Mélanie Montplaisir said.

Enviroplast had suspended its activities in March and was under protection from creditors since November 2019. The company will begin new operations starting with bags, shrink wraps, overwrap and nonfood bags for household and consumer products, Montplaisir said.

In another notable first-half materials deal, Houston-based Ingenia Polymers Corp. acquired a toll compounding plant in Texas from LyondellBasell Industries.

The plant in LaPorte had operated as Bayshore Industrial. LBI — a global resin maker and compounder — picked up the 100-employee plant in 2018 as part of its purchase of A. Schulman Inc. Schulman had owned the plant since 2010, when it was acquired as part of Schulman's purchase of ICO Inc.

Ingenia officials said that the acquisition "increases (the firm's) leadership in the polymer producer services market and expands its capability to serve the converter market."