Rhodia (Paris / France; www.rhodia.com) has taken a first step toward its goal of gaining a 15% stake in the Indian polyamide compounding market by 2015, agreeing to acquire PI Polymers, a subsidiary of PI Industries (Gurgaon / India; www.piindustries.com). The acquisition price for the deal set to be finalised in March 2011 was not disclosed but is believed to be close to USD 14m. Rhodia said it will pay a multiple of seven times the estimated EBITDA for fiscal 2010/2011 of the company that has USD 13m in annual sales. Other reports said the figure was close to nine times. PI Polymer operates at an EBITDA ratio of around 15%.

Francois Hincker, president of Rhodia Engineering Plastics (Lyon / France; www.rhodia-ep.com), said his company has “identified strong synergies” in terms of product range and customer portfolio, that will “dramatically accelerate our growth in India.” The transaction includes all assets of the Indian plastics compounder, including a production facility employing 80 people, R&D capability, customer base and logistics network in India.

With capacity of 6,000 t/y, PI Polymer has a broad portfolio of engineering plastics compounds, including PP, ABS, PC, PA and TPUs. A spokesperson for Rhodia said it plans to triple output to 18,000 t/y within the next five years. The accent is expected to be clearly – if not solely – on PA, the French engineering plastics manufacturer’s core activity.