M&As: Versalis to acquire Novamont from Mater-Bi; Marie Tecnimont acquires PMMA recycling tech for EUR6 mn, sets up jv

Italy’s Versalis – Eni's chemical company and a shareholder of Novamont (36%) – and Mater-Bi – a company controlled by Investitori Associati II and NB Renaissance – have announced the signing of an agreement for Versalis to acquire the remaining 64% of Novamont’s shares currently held by Mater-Bi. Novamont is involved in the field of chemistry from renewable sources. Terms were not disclosed.

Next steps and the timing of closing are subject to approval by the competent authorities.

Versalis is the largest Italian chemical company and leader at an international level, whose strategy hinges on its product portfolio specialisation, including the chemistry from renewables.

Novamont is a B Corp-certified Benefit company and a leading player in the circular bioeconomy sector, as well as a leader in the market for biodegradable and compostable bioplastics and biochemicals. Its acquisition represents a great opportunity for Versalis to accelerate its strategy through the integration of a technological platform which is both unique and complementary. This will significantly contribute to the decarbonisation of Versalis’ product portfolio.

The deal will strengthen the Novamont platform by accelerating the growth of high value-added, multi-product supply chains and local projects, it adds.

In other news, further to the information released in February 2023, Maire Tecnimont S.p.A says that its subsidiary NextChem, within the Sustainable Technology Solutions business unit, has acquired a 51% stake in MyRemono S.r.l., a newly established company to which Biorenova S.p.A. transferred patents, assets, including a demonstration plant, and contracts related to CatC, a depolymerisation technology to recover monomers (building blocks for the plastic value chain) with ultra-high levels of purity from sorted plastic waste, particularly polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA, known as Plexiglass).

The purchase price for the 51% stake acquired by NextChem is EUR6.12 million, of which EUR4.12 million paid upfront and EUR2 million payable within 36 months subject to certain conditions. Nextchem and Biorenova have also executed a share capital increase of MyRemono for an amount of EUR2.2 million and have signed a shareholder loan agreement for additional EUR2 million to be funded within 12 months in order to support the expected investments, including the construction of the industrial plant.

CatC technology’s first demonstration plant, with a processing capacity of approximately 1,600 tonnes/year of plastic waste, is operating in the Abruzzo region (central Italy) and monomer samples have been fully validated by perspective off-takers. The results achieved show that CatC provides a cost-effective, efficient (approximately 95% conversion rate) and competitive alternative to other existing depolymerisation technologies for Plexiglass, also considering that the obtained monomers can be reprocessed within a circular economy model.

MyRemono will build the first industrial plant with a processing capacity of up to approximately 5,000 tonnes/year, which is expected to start operations in the second half of 2025, when the commercial activities related to licensing, process engineering and critical equipment supply will also be launched.

Additionally, MyRemono intends to expand the application of CatC to other value-added plastics, including the depolymerisation of polystyrene, a widely used plastic with numerous industrial applications from food packaging to electronics and automotive, among others. A further optimisation of the technology could allow to address the even larger polyolefins market.

MyRemono’s revenues are expected to progressively grow starting from 2025 for a cumulated value of EUR30 million by 2028. After this ramp-up period, yearly revenues are expected to be in the EUR15-20 million range, with an EBITDA margin of approximately 40%.

(PRA)

Subscribe to Get the Latest Updates from PRA  Please click here