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Frontpage | Column | News Archive | Forchem.com |
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Forchem acquired by MB Funds: New momentum to the construction of the sterol plant In January 2007, Forchem’s shareholders – Finnish Industry Investment Ltd., Hannu Näsi and Martti Fredrikson and including funds administered by Bio Fund Managament, Profita Management and OKO Venture Capital – signed the final agreement to sell Forchem to the Finnish private equity company MB Funds. Alongside the acquisition, the new owner arranged preliminarily funding for the sterol plant investment. “We are very pleased with the fact that MB Funds is the new owner of Forchem. Their experience and resources will guarantee the development of Forchem’s business activities and its position as a leading company in the industry in future,” says President & CEO Martti Fredrikson, Forchem. “Forchem has competent personnel, a valued brand and a widely recognised ability to meet customers’ needs. We have been growing at a record-breaking rate and believe that it will continue under the new ownership. Our strategy for tall oil distillates is to maintain steady growth and optimise the entire service supply chain. This will manifest itself to our customers as improved delivery performance. Our outlook for the future remains positive.” According to Fredrikson, Forchem has set an ambitious target of beginning plant sterols production as soon as possible, in a production unit to be built next to the current fractionation plant. The production plants will make up a complex that is, at least for the moment, unique worldwide. This gives Forchem a major competitive edge. The further processing of tall oil into sterol provides a more than tenfold increase in value. Pine-based plant sterols are manufactured by only a few foreign companies, which are located mostly in the US. Currently there is no sterols production in Finland, as the Kaukas plant was closed down. With a production capacity of 4,000 tonnes, Forchem will be a major player in the sterol markets with a place in the top three producers. The raw material for sterols production is tall oil pitch, which is among the heaviest fractions left over from distilling tall oil into tall oil rosin for the adhesives industry and into tall oil fatty acids for the paints and coatings industry, among others. At the moment the components used in sterols production are incinerated for energy along with tall oil pitch. MB Funds is a Finnish private equity company that focuses on MBOs, restructurings, privatisations and growth financing of Nordic businesses with an established position. The funds advised by the company have the top Finnish institutions as investors. |
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| Forchem Oy P.O. Box 16, FI-26101 RAUMA, FINLAND tel +358 2 478 4400 fax +358 2 478 4499 |
Visiting address: Maanpääntie 3, 26820 RAUMA, FINLAND |
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