Private-Equity-Firm-Owned Chemical Distributors: Exit through SBOs or IPOs?

Abstract

This article is a follow-up to 2013 research by Tay and Chelliah. At that time, five of the world’s top chemical distributors were owned by private equity firms. This article updates the information on global chemical market sales and the market size for chemical distributors. This discussion and analyses will cover the PE-owned chemical distributors that have undergone primary and secondary buyouts and initial public offerings—namely, Brenntag, IMCD, and Univar. The value-creation drivers—operational performance improvements, and leverage and multiple expansion—were used to evaluate the performances of the companies after they underwent their IPOs. For Brenntag, the three value-creation drivers were also used to evaluate its performance after its primary and secondary buyouts.