Minova

The Opportunity

Formerly known as Fosroc Mining and owned by Burmah Castrol, itself a subsidiary of BP, this business had built a quality reputation for supplying chemicals used to enhance safety and efficiency in the coal-mining, metal-mining and tunnelling markets.

Working with the senior management team, we identified significant potential for a buyout of this non-core asset from the parent company to enable us to deliver accelerated growth, partly through an acquisition strategy.

The Strategy

Having successfully completed the buyout in 2003, when the business was rebranded Minova International, we rapidly moved to implement a growth strategy based on three key imperatives: the acquisition of a US competitor; the purchase of the 50% shareholding of the German joint venture partner; and the acquisition of the small competitor businesses owned by this same German company, which were located in Poland, Russia and Australia.

In parallel, Minova generated substantial organic growth in its existing operations and also pursued entry into new markets, notably China which, as the world’s largest underground coal market, offered excellent potential for growth.

The Result

During the period of our ownership, Minova expanded and operated 13 manufacturing sites in seven countries, with key facilities in the USA, Germany, Poland, Australia and South Africa. The company’s new scale and capabilities enabled it to deliver EBITDA of £36m in 2006, a fivefold increase over the pre-CBPE period.

In October 2006, we realised our investment through a sale to Orica, an Australian quoted company, for £360m, generating a return of 17.4x our original investment.