Major materials science company, Royal DSM has sold its Resins & Functional Materials (RFM) businesses including the coatings activities of DSM Advanced Solar, known for its anti-reflective (AR) resin coatings for solar glass and on-field PV power plant upgrading, to rival Covestro AG for a cash sum of around €1.4 billion.
DSM’s RFM business units were said to have represented €1,012 million of its 2019 total annual net sales and €133 million of total EBITDA last year. Covestro noted in a financial analyst call that DSM’s RFM business had €984 million in sales and EBITDA of €141m in 2019.
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According to Covestro, the acquisition meant it would become the single largest market leader in the resin coatings sector, globally with annual sales estimated in 2019 to have reached around €3.4 billion. The annual global resin coatings market was said to be around €25 billion.
DSM did not specifically state why the deal was agreed but the company is on its own acquisition trail with the recent acquisitions of Erber Group and CSK, as well as the soon to be completed acquisition of Glycom, all of which are in the nutrition and health sectors.
Geraldine Matchett and Dimitri de Vreeze, co-CEOs of Royal DSM stated, “This sale builds on our approach of actively managing our businesses, as DSM continues to evolve as a purpose-led, science-based company operating in the fields of Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living.”
However, DSM also noted that DSM Advanced Solar’s next-generation PV module backsheets business had not been sold to Covestro and would remain as DSM Advanced Solar as part of Royal DSM.