Highland Corporate acted as sole adviser on the sale of Quimicer to Ferro Corporation.

INDUSTRIAL TRANSACTION

We advised Grupo QuimiCer on its sale to Ferro Corporation, a leading American multinational in the chemical sector.

Highland Corporate acted as exclusive advisor to Grupo QuimiCer.
2018

ADVISORS

Ferro was assisted by PwC as financial advisor and Jones Day as legal advisor. Quimicer was assisted by Highland Corporate as M&A advisor.

Highland Corporate acted as sole adviser on the sale of Quimicer to Ferro Corporation.

BACKGROUND

Quimicer, a company founded in 1989 and linked to the Bonet family, is one of the pioneers in the glaze industry with Colorificio Cerámico Bonet, offering everything from traditional frits and glazes for coating tiles to inks for digital ceramic printing. It is a healthy company with an annual turnover of approximately €24 million and a workforce of over one hundred. With plants in Onda, Poland, and Portugal, the group has a well-respected client base in 25 countries.

The company was facing a difficult family situation due to the sudden death of Antonio Bonet, the owner’s son, who was called upon to continue his father’s business and had already assumed many roles within it. This sad loss and its impact on the company’s day-to-day operations led the owners to consider selling the business.

Ferro, a North American multinational supplier to the tile industry, had a turnover of nearly €1.4 billion in 2017 and €1.216 billion in the first nine months of 2018.

TRANSACTION

With Ferro’s acquisition of Quimicer, the company consolidates a series of acquisitions made by the American multinational with the aim of strengthening its presence in one of the main European clusters in the ceramics sector, located in the province of Castellón, where it has been established for more than 50 years.

The agreement reached between the two companies guarantees the continuity of Quimicer’s business, which was in a good financial position but in a delicate situation at the family level due to the lack of generational succession.

Quimicer will maintain its brand and operations, both productively and administratively, given its strong presence in the global ceramics market. This will complement Ferro’s product offering. This, combined with other acquisitions made by the American multinational, will also allow for a reorganization of production that will allow for greater specialization and resource optimization.