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Carlyle Group is exploring a €3bn sale of Dutch salt and chemicals producer Nobian, in keeping with folks acquainted with the matter.
Nobian, owned by Carlyle and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, produces high-purity salt, chlorine and different speciality chemicals to be used in purposes together with photo voltaic panels, battery storage methods and insulation.
The US buyout group has held discussions with funding banks because it prepares for a possible sale course of, which is anticipated to begin subsequent 12 months, the folks stated. Carlyle, GIC and Nobian declined to remark.
Carlyle and GIC acquired the salt producer in 2018 after they purchased the chemicals division of Dutch conglomerate Akzo Nobel for €10.1bn in what stays Carlyle’s greatest European deal.
The companions renamed the Akzo Nobel chemicals arm Nouryon, and then spun out Nobian in 2021.
Last 12 months Nobian made earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of about €400mn, the folks stated.
Under chief government Michael Koenig, Nobian has set targets to scale back its direct carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2040, whereas transitioning its energy intensive mining and processing actions to wind and solar energy.
Nobian is among the many largest industrial emitters within the Netherlands and signed an settlement with the Dutch authorities final 12 months to work collectively to scale back its carbon emissions sooner.
Carlyle has not shied away from investing in energy-intensive European companies that have to decarbonise.
In 2019, it acquired 37 per cent of Spanish built-in oil and gas firm Cepsa. In June, it purchased a portfolio of oil and gas initiatives in Italy, Egypt and Croatia that may kind the premise of a brand new Mediterranean-focused producer.
In every case, Carlyle requires portfolio corporations to set targets to scale back emissions consistent with the objectives of the Paris local weather settlement.
Part of Carlyle’s wager is that by chopping emissions, its corporations will probably be extra precious when the fund must exit.
“It’s a part of our investment thesis,” Megan Starr, Carlyle’s world head of company affairs, advised the Financial Times in June. “What’s the maximum feasible decarbonisation potential that we can implement and execute over our hold period.”
While the principal makes use of for Nobian’s salt-based chemicals stay on a regular basis merchandise resembling textiles, prescribed drugs and disinfectants, they’re additionally very important for clear energy options resembling electrical car batteries and wind generators.
The enterprise has mined salt within the Netherlands since 1918 and can also be exploring utilizing underground salt caverns to retailer hydrogen, pure gas and renewable energy within the kind of compressed air.
Nobian has manufacturing websites within the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark and employs about 1,600 folks.