Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) continues to reduce its dependence on the fertilizers market and expand its industrial products activities. The company, headed by Akiva Mozes, announced today that it had bought six companies in the fields of water purification and hygiene in recent weeks. ICL did not specify how much it paid for each company, but the total price for the six of them, all European, is $40 million.
Two years ago, ICL made its last substantial investment, when it bought the Industrial Water Treatment business unit ("HWT") of Henkel KGaA for €60 million. Now it is expanding its water activity, one of the six recently acquired companies being Irish company Medentech, which develops and produces soluble tablets for disinfecting surfaces and purifying drinking water, chiefly for the world’s developing regions. The company’s website indicates that its customers include drug and medical device companies Pfizer, Bayer, and Johnson & Johnson.
ICL has bought five hygiene companies: Primalab of France; Argochem; Merak; Hyproclean; and Ekuline's Germany-based cleaning products division.
These companies produce a broad range of hygiene, cleaning and maintenance products and market them to companies in France, Germany, Eastern European countries, Russia and Ukraine in the food and beverage processing, catering, agriculture, health care, wine production and animal breeding industries.
The acquisitions are not a big financial bite for ICL to swallow: at the end of the third quarter it had $540 million in cash and low leverage, with shareholders' equity of $2.78 billion, representing 45.5% of its balance sheet footing.
ICL said that its Performance Products division intended to integrate the business activities of these companies into its Anti-Germ International (Anti-Germ) business unit, a producer of disinfectants and cleaning substances for the food, beverage and farm industry throughout Europe, to strengthen its product portfolio, client base, sales and service capabilities and geographic scope.
Yossi Shahar, Executive Vice President Corporate Development of ICL, said, "These acquisitions are part of ICL's strategic focus to broaden its activities as a solutions provider and balance the company's traditional fertilizers and specialty chemicals businesses by continuing to build our capabilities in the rapidly growing water treatment and hygiene sectors."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 14, 2009
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