
CLEVELAND — Avient Corp., a leading global provider of sustainable and specialized material solutions, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its distribution business to an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital for $950 million in cash, subject to regulatory approval.
The company announced in April that it was exploring a sale of its distribution business in connection with an agreement to acquire the protective materials business of DSM. The company recently completed that process, culminating in Friday's announcement.
READ: Avient to Consider Sale of its Distribution Business
"As expected, there were multiple buyers interested in acquiring the distribution business, and it was a competitive process," said Avient Chairman, President and CEO Robert M. Patterson. "Ultimately, we selected H.I.G. Capital based on the strength of their proposal, which values the business at approximately 10x LTM EBITDA and includes no financing contingencies. We are also confident that H.I.G. will make an excellent home for the Distribution business and a good partner for Avient as both a supplier and a customer."
The company noted that after-tax proceeds of approximately $750 million from the sale will be used to pay down near-term maturing debt. Pro forma for the sale of the distribution business and the forthcoming acquisition of DSM's protective materials business, net debt to adjusted EBITDA leverage will be approximately 2.8x at the end of the year.
"The sale of the distribution business and acquisition of DSM Protective Materials represent the next steps in our specialty transformation that began over a decade ago," Patterson said. "We are excited about our future as a pure play specialty formulator of sustainable solutions."
In accordance with US GAAP, the company expects the distribution business will be classified as "held for sale" and reported as a discontinued operation in future filings.