WATERBURY, Conn.-
MacDermid Inc. shareholders have agreed to a $1.3 billion buyout of the specialty chemicals maker, which was founded 85 years ago in Waterbury.
The company, which moved its corporate headquarters to Denver in 2004, still has almost 200 workers in Waterbury and about 2,900 worldwide.
Shareholders voted to approve the buyout at a special meeting in Waterbury on Thursday, the Republican-American newspaper reported in Saturday’s editions.
The attempt to take the company private was led by Chief Executive Daniel Leever and investment funds Court Square Capital Partners II LLP and Weston Presidio V LP.
Under terms of the buyout, they will acquire MacDermid for $35 per share, an 8 percent increase over the group’s September bid of $32.50 per share. The deal includes the assumption of about $301 million of debt.
Following the closing, MacDermid’s stock will no longer trade on the New York Stock Exchange. MacDermid’s board of directors endorsed the proposal after it was unanimously recommended by a special four-member committee comprised of independent directors.
Leever said last fall he had no plans to break up or restructure the company because he believes it has always been “lean and frugally run.” He also said he did not foresee “any major changes going forward.”
When asked how the sale would affect the company’s workers in Waterbury, Leever told the Republican-American newspaper that the new structure would “make our people in Waterbury a more important part of the company, not less.”
MacDermid makes specialty chemicals for the metal and plastic finishing, electronics and graphic arts industries.
The Waterbury operation is the research and development center for MacDermid’s electronic chemical business—the company’s fastest-growing business segment—and the North American headquarters of its advanced surface finishing business.
Company executives considered leaving Connecticut in 1991 after state officials accused it of committing 18 environmental violations, including failure to post no-smoking signs and leaving drums of chemicals open.
In 2001, the company agreed to pay $4 million in fines for dumping toxic chemicals into the Naugatuck River, under a federal judge’s order and a settlement of a civil lawsuit brought by the state.
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Information from: Republican-American,
