Orion Engineered Carbons S.A., announced that the acquisition of the remaining shares of the carbon black business (QECC) in Qingdao, China was recently completed.
“The total purchase price of approximately EUR28 million for 100% of the equity of QECC was well within our expectations, the business was essentially debt free, and the closing actually was completed ahead of schedule,” said Jack Clem, Chief Executive Officer of Orion. “We are pleased with the positioning and performance of the business, as well as progress on integration within the Orion group. QECC will add to our already strong market position in Asia Pacific and will be immediately accretive to our adjusted EBITDA.”
“We also believe that our capital allocation plan, released before the end of last year, will strengthen our financial position and support shareholder value, and now that 2015 is ended, we can affirm that we expect our adjusted EBITDA for FY 2015 to be towards the higher end of our most recent guidance range (EUR205 million to EUR210 million) in spite of some headwinds from feedstock in our Rubber Business. These headwinds abated somewhat and volumes held up as we ended the year. Our Specialty Business also enjoyed good volumes as we closed the year and has had another strong year of profitable growth.”