May 1, 2002
Midland, Mich. — Dow Coing Corp. today announced it has completed its acquisition of Multibase, a leading independent thermoplastics compounder serving the automotive, appliance, construction and packaging industries. Dow Coing's Plastics business unit and Multibase are now integrating operations under the Multibase corporate brand name to become a global leader in the market for thermoplastic/elastomeric materials and solutions.
"Dow Coing and Multibase are working together to quickly integrate into one globally linked and aligned company," said Andy Tometich, formerly the Dow Coing Plastics Program Manager, and currently the new President of Multibase. "We have extremely valuable industry expertise in both companies and we are working to staff key roles with a healthy mix of Dow Coing and Multibase employees."
The integration will present several synergies. The combined industry expertise and complementary product lines of Dow Coing and Multibase will give customers an enhanced portfolio of solutions to their unmet needs. In addition, the integration will increase the utilization of Multibase manufacturing capacity by moving Dow Coing's plastic product line from contract manufacturing to in-house production. The merger will also increase access for Multibase products to the Asian market, including Japan, Korea and China, through Dow Coing's commercial infrastructure.
The financial advisors to Multibase S.A. were CANEC Inteational Ltd. and Est & Young Corporate Finance, while the financial advisor to Dow Coing for this acquisition was Credit Lyonnais Securities.
Multibase (www.multibase.com ), a Dow Coing Company, is a leading global supplier of differentiated thermoplastic/elastomeric materials and solutions. Its product line includes a large variety of proprietary polymer compound products such as Multiflex thermoplastic elastomers; Multibatch mineral filled polyolefin masterbatches; and Multipro polyolefin compounds, as well as two families of ultra-high molecular weight (UHMW) siloxane additives for the plastics industry: Dow Coing MB Masterbatch Series Additives and Dow Coing Si Powder Resin Modifiers. It also offers a new line of high performance thermoplastic elastomers, known as TPSiVTM materials, based on proprietary technology that combines the high temperature elastomeric performance of silicone rubber with the melt reprocessability and thermal and chemical resistance of engineering thermoplastics. Multibase's headquarters is located in France with manufacturing facilities in the US, France, and India, and commercial offices around the world.
Dow Coing (www.dowcoing.com ), which develops, manufactures, and markets diverse silicon-based products, currently offers more than 7,000 products and services to customers around the world. Dow Coing is a global leader in silicon-based materials. Its shares are equally owned by Dow Chemical Company and Coing Incorporated. More than half of Dow Coing's sales are outside the United States.