One Rock grabs plastics distributor

The private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners has agreed to buy Nexeo Solutions’ plastics distribution business in a deal valued at $640 million. Nexeo is the former Ashland chemical and plastics distribution business. TPG Capital Partners bought Nexeo in 2011 and sold it to W. L. Ross & Co. in 2016. Now publicly traded, Nexeo derives half its $4 billion in annual sales from plastics distribution. The deal is in advance of the $2 billion merger of Nexeo and its larger chemical distribution rival Univar, which should take place before the end of March. In September 2018, when the two agreed to join forces, they said Nexeo’s plastics business would go on the block. Without the plastics business, Univar says, the merged firm will concentrate on chemical distribution. One Rock says it looks forward to helping the plastics management team “fortify and expand” the business.