Arsenal Capital Selling Vertellus To Equity Firm

New York City-based private equity firm Arsenal Capital has sold Vertellus Specialties to another private equity player, Wind Point Partners. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but Arsenal Managing Director Jeff Kovach tells C&EN that his company tripled its cumulative investment in the chemical firm. Indianapolis-based Vertellus was formed in 2006 through the merger of two specialty chemical companies in Arsenal's portfolio: Rutherford Chemicals, which it acquired in 2003 for $63 million, and Reilly Industries, which it purchased for $250 million in 2005. With annual sales of more than $450 million, Vertellus is the world's largest maker of pyridine and picolines, the insect repellant N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET), castor oil derivatives, and citrate polymer additives. It is also the world's second-largest maker of vitamin B-3. Kovach says Arsenal has no immediate plans to sell Velsicol, a specialty chemical maker it acquired in 2005. Wind Point has appointed Rich Preziotti, former vice president and general manager of Honeywell's chemical and fluorine products business, to run Vertellus.