Corporate Vision January 2017

, Italmatch Chemicals Group started out in 1998 as a small MBO. Today they have six manufacturing plants in Italy, Spain, Germany, UK, plus four in Asia Pacific and two in USA. Initially created by the management supported by two Italian PE investors, the firm initially purchased a chemical manufacturing plant with 30 people and sales of about €15M producing phosphorus and sulphur compounds for lubricant oil. The initial period for the firm was a challenge as they did not have enough senior staff & a management team. However, after a few months, a CFO and a sales and marketing director joined the company, and today they contributed to transforming the company and increasing their own global responsibilities. The initial firm’s main objective was to build a stand-alone company with a clear long term strategy. Following the initial management buyout, Italmatch focused on certain, initial strategic priorities starting from lubricant and plastic additives/flame retardants. Italmatch today has sales of 340 million, employs approximately 500 people and has profitability in excess of 15%. Their main growth is achieved through research and development, and also innovation. 5% of the firm’s From Small MBO to Global Leader Italmatch is a global specialty chemical group, with leadership in lubricant, water and oil, detergents and plastics additives, markets and technology leadership in phosphorus derivatives (both organic and inorganic), polymers, esters and chlorides, from synthetic to fully natural products. We profile the firmand look at what they have achieved within their industry in the last years. sales go towards R&D. With an innovation pipeline covering at least next five years, and full with more than 100 new products/ application, Italmatch delivers on average five-ten new commercial products/applications per year. Another way the firm ensures growth is through selected acquisitions and global partnership with global players. Firstly, Italmatch finalized eight selected acquisitions in the period between 2007 and 2016, almost one per year, bringing the company to today’s size and business portfolio. Each acquisition had potential synergies that allowed each target to at least double profitability with Italmatch, in a three - five-year time frame, compared to the initial profitability at time of purchase. These acquisitions have given Italmatch global opportunities and new, diversified product offerings with a selected panel of around ten global multinational Partners. Growth has been achieved through diversification of the product offering to the same customer, with respect to the historical product base, and also through globalization with presence in the 3 Regions. Italmatch has been a constant in the industry since its inception. The main industry drivers and growth factors have beenwater, oil and lubricant additives. Italmatch has quickly developed to become a major global supplier of a broad range of Water Management & Oil Performance Additives through Dequest, GRS Polymers, Solvay Desalination, Corrosion Inhibitors and Mining Businesses and USA based Compass Chemicals acquisitions. The firm is currently well-positioned to fulfill today’s needs of the global water and oil additives markets due to its broad product range, dedicated technical support/ solution providing capabilities and more flexible and/or regional manufacturing set-up. Following the take-over in January 2007 from Akzo Nobel of the Arese manufacturing plant and the lubricant business produced in the same unit, Italmatch started immediately to integrate the strength of the two plants in order to increase its cooperation with all major lubricant additive manufactures. The success has taken Italmatch to become a global reference in the market for bath special raw materials for lubricants and also in specific additives, especially in the MWF business, leveraging from its flexibility in manufacturing and fast response to customer needs. With recent acquisition of a business in the corrosion inhibition sector as well as with the recent acquisition of a manufacturing plant in the USA, Italmatch is currently expanding its reach to customer specific needs and well as its geographical manufacturing base in order to be more effective in servicing its global customers/partners. Italmatch’s expansion of its R&D capabilities in Arese, not only toward the synthesis of new chemistries but also with a new and state of the art applicative laboratory, increases the cooperation with its customers/ partners in order to increase its response to satisfy the market needs and its efficacy to tackle the changes of the global scenario in the lubricant and MWF industry. The company is working with an improved environmental sustainability focus in order to reuse by-product generated in the plant and reduce wastes. The next stage for Italmatch is to grow further entering 2017. In 2014, the largest European fund (Ardian with asset portfolio of 50Bn) invested 88% always together with the Management, through its MID CAP Fund. The common goal of Ardian and Management is to bring Italmatch to the next sized growth phase, with sales between 500 & 1 BN, making Italmatch one of the global leaders in Specialty Chemicals Additives.