PPG has been very active on the M&A front.
The Pittsburgh, PA-based company acquired Ennis-Flint – and launched a new business unit called Traffic Solutions – and is in the process of procuring Wörwag, VersaFlex and Tikkurila.
"Ennis-Flint is a global leader in pavement markings and traffic safety solutions with a wide range of products, including traffic paint, hot-applied and preformed thermoplastics, raised pavement markers and intelligent transportation systems," said Vince Morales, PPG senior VP and CFO.
Ennis-Flint has approximately 1,000 employees globally, with a network of manufacturing facilities within the US, Europe, South America, Australia and Asia, according to Morales.
Wörwag is a global manufacturer of coatings for industrial and automotive applications headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, and founded in 1918.
The company employs about 1,100 people globally and specializes in developing sustainable liquid, powder and film coatings.
Wörwag operates locations in Germany, the US, China, South Africa, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland and Poland.
"VersaFlex specializes in polyurea, epoxy and polyurethane coatings for water and wastewater infrastructure, flooring, transportation infrastructure, and industrial applications," Morales said. "It is an aggregation of four US-based protective coatings companies, consisting of legacy VersaFlex, Raven Lining Systems, Milamar Coatings and Specialty Products, Inc., which were acquired by DalFort Capital from 2017-2019."
VersaFlex has approximately 130 employees and the company operates three manufacturing sites located in Kansas, Oklahoma and Washington.
"We have also made offers to acquire Tikkurila, a leading Nordic paint and coatings company that is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland," the CFO said. "It sells decorative paints and related products to wholesalers, retailers and construction-supply stores. We continue to believe that the combination of Tikkurila and PPG is to the benefit of both companies’ employees, customers and all other stakeholders, and will continue through the process."
PPG and Tikkurila recently entered into an amendment to the previously announced definitive combination agreement. PPG said it will improve its recommended offer to acquire all issued and outstanding stock of Tikkurila in an all-cash transaction.
Under the improved offer, Tikkurila shareholders would receive €34 in cash for each share of Tikkurila stock they own, for a total transaction value of approximately €1.52 billion, including the assumption of debt and cash, according to PPG.
"Each of these companies brings incremental benefits to PPG that will lead to further shareholder value creation and will start to provide accretive benefit as the year progresses. These incremental benefits will supplement the organic growth that we anticipate in our other core businesses, as we continue to support our customers with excellent service, new digital tools and sustainably-advantaged products," Morales said.
Over the past two years, PPG has also acquired Whitford Worldwide, Hemmelrath, Dexmet, Industria Chimica Reggiana and Alpha Coating Technologies, LLC.
"If you look at some of our acquisitions in the past couple of years, including Hemmelrath and Whitford, we've solidified many of these customer relationships on ancillary products as well. PPG’s acquisition strategy includes expanding our technical breadth in order to better serve our customers, and create value-added solutions for their business," Morales said.
"Our acquisition pipeline remains robust and active. Our focus is to integrate acquisitions in a timely manner, with first-order being commercially working with our new customers to understand our capabilities and the added value we can provide. Next, securing our acquisition synergies as quickly and efficiently as possible, and finally, looking for ways to optimize the new products, brands or ways of working, which we acquired, across our entire company," he added.
