Equistone Partners Europe (“Equistone”), one of Europe’s leading mid-market private equity investors today announces that it has acquired a majority stake in United Initiators (“UI”), investing alongside its current management. Equistone has acquired the business from Vision Capital and Speyside Equity for an undisclosed sum. Headquartered in Pullach, Germany, UI is the largest focused global producer of speciality chemical initiators.

 

UI’s products are highly essential ingredients for many applications and products within daily life including hair bleaching, disinfection, denture cleaning and teeth whitening. Industrial applications comprise polymer manufacturing and processing, etching of printed circuit boards, chemical synthesis, oil and gas exploration, soil remediation and many more.

 

Ed Hoozemans, CEO of United Initiators, commented: “On behalf of all colleagues at United Initiators I would like to express our gratitude to Vision Capital and Speyside for supporting our success over the past years. We are now really looking forward to the partnership with Equistone, a capital-strong, experienced and successful mid-market investor. Together we can build on the strong foundations we have in place, achieve further expansion in our core Western and Asian markets, as well as extend our product and application range.
P+P Pöllath + Partners was lead counsel, supported by AssmannPeiffer Attorneys (Max Peiffer and Lukas Assmann) on energy law. The responsible firm in the U.S. was Thompson Hine and in China, the firm Zhong Lun.

 

The financial terms of the deal are undisclosed. The completion of the transaction is subject to competition authority approval.