US EPS producer Epsilyte (The Woodlands, Texas; www.epsilyte.com) has acquired competitor StyroChem Canada (Baie d’Urfe, Quebec; www.styrochem.com). Financial details were not disclosed.

With the acquisition, Epsilyte plans to expand its product portfolio, said David Shainberg, MD at US private equity company Balmoral Funds (Los Angeles, California; www.balmoralfunds.com), which controls the EPS specialist together with the Epsilyte managers. StyroChem Canada was sold by US investor PMC Capital Partners (Sun Valley, California; www.pmccapital.com), which had held the company in its portfolio for a little over two years.

The transaction has created one of the largest EPS producers in North America. Epsilyte operates a US production plant in Peru, Illinois, which, according to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net), has EPS capacity of 120,000 t/y. As a result of the acquisition, the plant in Montreal / Canada will add a further 54,000 t/y of EPS.

It is still unclear whether the transaction also includes StyroChem’s smaller US EPS production site in Fort Worth, Texas, (24,000 t/y). It does, however, seem probable, because Epsylite says that, after the purchase, it will have three plants with a total of more than 300 employees. With Fort Worth, Epsilyte will account for nearly one-third of North American EPS capacity, and around 28% without it.