26 October 2022, Munich / Luxembourg:
Paragon Partners (Paragon) and its minority co-shareholders sell 100% in inprotec AG to International Chemical Investors group (ICIG). The transaction is subject to customary antitrust clearance and expected to close in November.
Paragon acquired a majority stake in the business in 2018 and has since invested more than €20 million into expanding production facilities. Over the course of the last four years, inprotec has further strengthened its leading market position as technology leader for complex large-scale granulation/drying processes, broadened its customer base, and profitably grew with a high double-digit CAGR p.a. With ICIG as future partner, inprotec and its current management will continue the successful growth story by leveraging inprotec’s existing strengths under new corporate ownership within the ICIG network.
“We are proud to see how inprotec has evolved over the course of our ownership period and how the company has significantly grown despite a turbulent market environment.”, states Christian Bettinger, Partner at Paragon. “We would like to thank Dr. Andreas Baranyai and Pierre Schwerdtfeger, both former managing shareholders, for their trust in partnering with us as new majority shareholder back in 2018 as well as the current management team Dr. Steve Döring (CEO) and Karsten Zastrow (CFO) for their dedication and drive executing this success story.”
“The acquisition of inprotec aligns with our long-term strategy to expand our offering in innovative, first-class contract manufacturing services,” adds Dr. Achim Riemann, Director of ICIG. “We are impressed by inprotec’s superb reputation, strong customer relationships and demonstrated financial performance and would plan to grow the reach to further industries and geographies.”
Paragon was advised during this transaction by Houlihan Lokey (M&A Advisory), goetzpartners (Commercial), KPMG (Financial & Tax), Clifford Chance (Legal), Gütt Olk Feldhaus (Legal Financing), and PwC (ESG).
ICIG was advised during this transaction by PwC (Financial & Tax), Value Partner (Commercial), Taylor Wessing (Legal) and ERM (Environmental).
About inprotec
inprotec AG, based in Heitersheim, offers its clients longstanding experience as the leading contract manufacturer for industrial drying and granulation services using fluidised-bed spray granulation, coating, matrix encapsulation and spray drying technologies. As an expert in this field, inprotec is the partner of choice to realize innovative and complex production processes and to overcome customers’ capacity and know-how bottlenecks. In recent years the company has handled over 2,500 starting materials and intermediate products across several industries (consumer goods, animal feed, cosmetics industry, plastic additives). inprotec AG operates two production sites in Heitersheim and Genthin today and employs c. 270 employees. For further information please refer to www.inprotec-ag.de
About PARAGON PARTNERS
Paragon is one of the leading independent private equity firms in Europe with more than €1.2 billion of equity under management. Paragon works closely with portfolio companies to achieve sustainable growth and operational excellence. The investment portfolio covers various industries and currently comprises 14 companies. Paragon was founded in 2004 and is based in Munich, Germany. For further information please refer to www.paragon.de.
About ICIG
International Chemical Investors Group is a privately owned industrial group with total sales of around €4 billion. ICIG is focusing on three main platforms: Fine Chemicals under the WeylChem brand, Chlorovinyls under the Vynova brand and Enterprises which comprises specialized companies active in fermentation products, viscose filament, activated carbon and wood protection chemicals (including “Corden BioChem”, “ENKA”, “CarboTech”, and “Rütgers Organics”). Since inception in 2004, ICIG has grown to operate more than 20 independent chemicals and pharmaceutical businesses, all of which have origins in major global chemical or pharmaceutical corporations. Today, ICIG companies employ approximately 4,500 employees and operate more than 28 manufacturing facilities in Europe and the United States. For further information please refer to www.ic-investors.com.
GERMANY