Brenntag expands Industry Coverage with “bolt-on” Acquisition in South Africa

Global chemical distributor Brenntag AG (Essen, Germany) announced  that it will acquire the business of Chemgrit Cosmetics (Pty) Ltd. (Boksburg / Johannesburg, South Africa) for an undisclosed consideration. The company is an independent distributor of specialty chemicals, focusssed on the Personal Care and Cleaning markets.

Chemgrit Cosmetics operates three warehouses, located in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. With an in-house laboratory, the company provides customers with a range of value-added services. These include mixing, refilling, redistribution & delivery, formulating & testing of materials and products and other technical support. 

For FY 2018, the acquired business generated total sales of approx. EUR 5 mn. No financial details were disclosed on the transaction, which is subject to certain contractual closing conditions.  Closing is expected to take place during Q3-2019 Brenntag said.

Source: Brenntag press release

DistriConsult comment: Brenntag has been rather active on the acquistion front recently. Only a few days ago the group acquired the outstanding shares of its 50:50 jount venture Crest Chemicals from long-time partner AECI Limited. Another transaction in Africa, originally announced in September last year, the acquistion of the chemical business of Desbro Group in Kenya and the United Arab Emirates, closed at the end of last month. Completion of  the other the part of that transaction, the one that pertains to Tanzania and Uganda, is expected for the next few weeks. Besides these activities in emerging markets, Brenntag also announced the acquistion of Neutro Chemical Corp in Taiwan.  When combined, the new acquisitions represent close to EUR 130 mn (or approx. 1 percentage point) in added overal sales for the group. For MEAF region the relative growth is much more significant, though.

HGE – DCG / 02.08.2019