Squire Patton Boggs has advised Ashland Global Holdings Inc. on the acquisition of the Personal Care division of Schülke & Mayr GmbH. The purchase price amounted to €262.5 million.
The team advising Ashland was led by partners Jonathon Whittlesey in Cleveland and Dr. Volker Heidbüchel in Berlin, with relationship partner Carolyn Buller, and included Sepp Wohlfarter, Laura Janke, Tanja Weber, Laura Sparschuh, and Christian Bleschke in Germany and Jeffrey Wahl, Laura Kacenjar and Mitch Thomson in the US, and Oliver Geiss in Brussels.
Ashland Global Holdings Inc., which is based in Wilmington, Delaware, US, is a leading global producer of specialty chemicals, intermediates and solvents. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and is included in the S&P MidCap 400 stock index. Ashland’s products are used in a variety of consumer and industrial markets, including the automotive, construction and energy sector, as well as the fields of food and nutritional supplements, personal care and pharmaceuticals. The company is active in more than 100 countries and has around 4,200 employees.
Schülke & Mayr GmbH based in Norderstedt in Schleswig-Holstein has been one of the leading companies in the field of infection prevention and hygiene solutions for more than 130 years. Schülke develops, produces and sells antiseptics for wound care, disinfectants, medical and cosmetic skin care products, and preservatives. Today, the company has approximately 1,300 employees worldwide, markets its products in more than 100 countries and has 20 subsidiaries. The company operates three production sites in Germany (Schülke), France (Bioxal) and Brazil (Vic Pharma).
Through the acquisition, Ashland is strengthening its personal care business and expects synergies in innovation and through cross-selling opportunities in the area of “clean beauty” products, which especially appeal to customers who prefer gentle ingredients that are better tolerated. Schülke will become a pure healthcare company as a result of the sale.