Mallinckrodt Baker Goes To Private Equity Buyer

Private equity firm New Mountain Capital has signed a definitive agreement to buy laboratory chemicals supplier Mallinckrodt Baker from Covidien for $280 million in cash. Raj Gupta, former CEO of Rohm and Haas, will become chairman of the Phillipsburg, N.J.-based operation, which in 2009 sold $414 million worth of high-purity chemicals to R&D labs and manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, solar cells, and flat-panel displays. The transaction is expected to close by the end of September. Covidien, a maker of medical supplies, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals, will retain its active pharmaceutical ingredients business, which it claims is the world’s largest maker of acetaminophen and a large medicinal narcotics manufacturer. Gupta joined New York City-based New Mountain as a senior adviser last July and has been involved in the 10‑year-old private equity player’s first foray into the specialty chemical arena. The plan, Gupta tells C&EN, is to grow the Mallinckrodt business both organically and through acquisitions. The high-purity chemicals business is “very fragmented,” he notes. Mallinckrodt has manufacturing facilities in Phillipsburg and Deventer, the Netherlands. It also has access to capacity at a Covidien plant in Mexico City.