Orion Engineered Carbons files paperwork for IPO

ERJ Staff report (RN)

Frankfurt, Germany − Orion Engineered Carbons Holdings GmbH submitted a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $300m (€216.7m) in an initial public offering with the intent to list on the New York Stock Exchange, reported Chris Sweeney for Rubber News.

Pricing terms were not disclosed in the SEC filing.

Based in Frankfurt, the firm has enlisted Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and UBS Investment Bank as joint bookrunners for the deals, according to the SEC filing.

Orion produces carbon black used in the manufacture of printing inks, tires and other mechanical rubber goods. Rhone Capital LLC and Triton Advisors Ltd. bought the operation from Evonik AG in 2011 for about $1.2bn (€867m).

In 2013, Orion generated sales of about $1.85bn (€1.3bn). According to the SEC filing, 34 percent of its sales were generated in Europe, 24 percent in North America, 24 percent in Asia, 7 percent in Brazil, 5 percent in Africa and the remainder elsewhere.

The firm said it produces more than 280 specialty carbon black grades and about 70 rubber carbon black grades. It operates 13 wholly owned production plants and one jointly-owned plant.

According to the SEC filing, the firm is seeking to acquire the Chinese carbon black manufacturer Qingdao Evonik Chemicals Co. Ltd., which is subject to ongoing Chinese government review and negotiations with Evonik, the majority owner, and its joint venture partner.

Orion also has invested worldwide to increase capacity. According to the SEC filing, it added a rubber carbon black production line in South Korea, which freed capacity in existing units for further specialty carbon black production. The line began operations in 2013.

The firm said it is making incremental capacity increases at various sites in the US, Southern Europe and Brazil to meet demand from tire and mechanical rubber producers. It commissioned a specialty carbon black after-treatment facility in Germany in 2014.

Since it was acquired through 2013, the firm invested about $228.7m (€165m) to upgrade, increase flexibility and streamline its production network, according to its SEC filing.

Orion said it supplies about 1,000 customers with operations in 80 countries.