Acquisitions · Battery materials (separators)
Asahi Kasei buys battery separator maker Polypore for about $2.2 billion
- Buyer
- Asahi Kasei (Tokyo)
- Target
- Polypore International, Charlotte, North Carolina
- Value
- About $2.2B net for the Energy Storage business ($60.50 per share); 3M bought the Separations Media unit for about $1.0B; press put the enterprise value at about $3.2B
- Status
- Completed on August 26, 2015 (US time).
- Date
- 2015-02-23
Asahi Kasei acquired Polypore International, a Charlotte-based maker of microporous membranes, for $60.50 per share in cash through a US subsidiary. Before the merger, Polypore sold its Separations Media segment to 3M for about $1.0 billion, so Asahi Kasei kept only the Energy Storage business, at a net cost of about $2.2 billion. Press reports put the enterprise value of the whole company at about $3.2 billion.
Why it matters
The deal added lead-acid battery separators and a second lithium-ion separator line to Asahi Kasei's own Hipore business. It reflects a Japanese materials maker positioning itself for growth in electric vehicles and energy storage.
Polypore's businesses
Polypore's Energy Storage segment makes separators for lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries. Its lithium-ion separator plants are in the US, South Korea and China, and its lead-acid separator plants are in the US, Thailand, France, Germany, India and China. The company has manufacturing facilities or sales offices in nine countries. Its other segment, Separations Media, made flat sheet and hollow fiber membranes for filtration and was sold to 3M before the merger closed.
After the merger
Asahi Kasei said the deal supported its medium-term plan, "For Tomorrow 2015," and its focus on environment and energy. After the closing, Polypore became a wholly owned subsidiary and was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Shigeki Takayama, president of Asahi Kasei E-materials, also became Polypore's CEO, and separator development was to be coordinated between the two companies.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
