Element Solutions bags specialties firm Coventya

The US specialty chemical firm Element Solutions has agreed to acquire Coventya, a Paris-based producer of surface finishing chemicals, from its British owner Silverfleet Capital for about $500 million. Coventya has an array of decorative and functional coatings, mainly for metal, that it sells into more than 60 countries from production sites in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Coventya expects to post pretax profit of over $36 million and sales of about $194 million in its fiscal year ending in September. Last year, Element Solutions recorded pretax profit of $423 million on sales of $1.9 billion. It expects the acquisition to generate annual savings of at least $16 million within 2 years. Element Solutions changed its name from Platform Specialty Products in 2019 after selling its Arysta LifeScience unit to India’s UPL for $4.2 billion.