British Vita buys Italian TPE compounder

LONDON (April 5)--British Vita P.L.C. has acquired the thermoplastic elastomers business of Italy's Valerio Franceschetti Elastomeri S.p.A. to go with its growing TPE materials business unit.

British Vita, itself the object of a buyout by a U.S. industrial investor group, will pay up to $20.7 million for the VFE unit, which makes technical TPE compounds for markets such as leisure, construction, medical, household appliances and footwear.

Sales in 2004 amounted to $35.4 million, with pretax earnings of $2.7 million.

Adding VFE complements Vita's acquisition of Elastoteknik in Sweden in 2002 and Polytex in France in 2003, Vita CEO David Campbell said. "These businesses, together with our Vita Thermoplastic Polymers operation in the U.K., provide an excellent base on which we can grow our major range of TPE products to replace existing materials in a number of exciting new applications/markets."

Corta Franca, Italy-based VFE will continue to make a range of polyethylene compounds.

From Rubber & Plastics News