Arsenal Buys Ferro Unit

The private equity firm Arsenal Capital Partners has agreed to purchase Ferro's fine chemicals business for $66 million. The deal includes Ferro's operations in electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries, ultracapacitors and other energy storage devices, specialty solvents, electronic materials, and fine chemicals. It does not include the Pfanstiehl active pharmaceutical ingredients business, which Ferro also intends to sell so it can focus on core activities such as particle engineering and color and glass science. Growth for the business, which Arsenal will rename Novolyte Technologies, "is going to come out of green solvents and energy storage," John Televantos, a principal at Arsenal, tells C&EN. Arsenal will put less emphasis on the unit's pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical operations. Televantos adds that Arsenal is already in discussions to acquire businesses that it can fold into Novolyte. Arsenal's ongoing acquisition of DSM's specialty products business is being scrutinized by the European Commission because both DSM and Arsenal's Velsicol Chemical unit make benzoic acid and sodium benzoate. Televantos says it is too early to tell whether Arsenal will have to sell operations or make other accommodations to satisfy antitrust concerns.