A global engineering and manufacturing firm has agreed a deal to buy Greater Manchester-based healthcare and industrial business Scapa Group in a deal worth over £400m.
The agreement was announced on Wednesday, and will see AMS Holdco 2, a subsidiary of US-based Schweitzer-Mauduit International Inc (SWM) complete the deal in the second quarter of this year. The offer at 210 p in cash per share has been recommended to Scapa shareholders, valuing the firm at £402.9m
Ashton-under-Lyne-based Scapa is listed on AIM and specialises in wound care, with sales operations around North America, Europe and Asia. Revenues for the financial year to March 2020 were £320.6m.
SWM is a leading global performance materials company, engineering films, nets and papers - serving markets from medical to tobacco to home decor.
Jeffrey Kramer, CEO of SWM, said: "We are very excited to announce our proposed acquisition of Scapa, which significantly enhances our position as a leading provider of performance materials for attractive specialty applications. Scapa advances our successful valued-added solutions strategy and enhances our ability to solve our customers' toughest innovation challenges by adding a fully integrated model with complementary capabilities.
"We are enthusiastic about adding Scapa's best-in-class global healthcare solutions platform to our already substantial presence, giving SWM immediate critical mass in the growing medical materials space. Together with Scapa, we will offer a comprehensive suite of products focused on skin-friendly specialty applications like advanced woundcare, wellness, and medical device fixation, in addition to our existing portfolio of medical products.
"We look forward to closing the transaction, capitalising on the growth opportunities ahead, and creating value for our customers, employees, and shareholders."
Heejae Chae, CEO of Scapa, added: "The Scapa team has worked tirelessly to build our brand to be globally recognised as an innovative, solutions-driven partner for outsourced product development and manufacture.
"As another multinational producer for outsourced performance materials, SWM has been on a similar journey to us, also extending into healthcare markets having initially been focused on customers in the industrials sector.
"We believe the combination of our complementary businesses will bring benefits to all stakeholders. We see these not only resulting from increased scale, but also from an increased ability to cross-sell products across our respective client bases, as well as an increased potential to enhance inorganic growth from within a larger group.
"We believe the enlarged business will also provide greater career development opportunities for employees"
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