Arysta LifeScience acquired by Platform Specialty Products for $3.5B

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Brian Bandell

Senior Reporter- South Florida Business Journal

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Platform Specialty Products announced its long-rumored acquisition of Dallas-based Arysta LifeScience with the price tag coming in at $3.51 billion.

The Miami-based specialty chemical company (NYSE: PAH) recently launched a $651.5 million stock offering to fund a previous acquisition and now to partially fund this new deal. The proceeds will be a combination of cash, equity, and debt.

Arysta sells 3,600 products in more than 100 counties. It manufactures insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, biostimulants and value-added nutrients and has a marketing team of more than 1,300. The company rang up net sales of $1.5 billion in 2013, with much of its sales in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Platform recently announced that its net sales in the third quarter would be in the range of $195 million to $197 million.

"This is a watershed event for Platform," Platform founder and Chairman Martin E. Franklin said in a news release. "Over the past twelve months we have demonstrated significant progress and exercised tremendous discipline as we executed against our build-up strategy.

Through the acquisitions of Arysta, CAS, and Agriphar we have established a leading position within an attractive asset-lite, high-touch specialty chemicals vertical."

Franklin said he's not done making acquisitions.

Arysta President and CEO Wayne Hewett will join Platform as president and lead its agrochemical business.

The deal should close in the first quarter of 2015.

Platform used Greenberg Traurig and Kane Kessler and legal advisors and Credit Suisse, Barclays, UBS Investment Bank and Nomura Securities International as M&A advisors for the deal. Barclays, Credit Suisse, UBS Investment Bank and Nomura committed to financing the deal.

For seller Premira funds, it used Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan as financial advisors and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP as legal counsel.

Brian Bandell covers banking, finance, health care and education. Get the latest banking news with our free daily newsletter. Click here to subscribe.