Portfolio
Nature of Business
Azelis is a leading pan-European distributor of specialty chemicals. The company currently operates in 26 European countries and also has offices in Shanghai and Mumbai.
Azelis was founded in 1996 and operates a number of international business areas that focus on providing products and specialist technical services to the coatings, plastics, rubber, composites, food, pharmaceutical, veterinary, cosmetics and adhesives sectors. In addition, the Group includes local companies that have a focus in areas such as animal nutrition, electronics, water treatment and detergents.
Investment Overview
3i invested in a €315m buyout in February 2007. Since then, we have worked closely with the management team to drive operational improvements across the business and support the acquisition and integration of individual subsidiaries
Azelis chose 3i as an investment partner thanks to our international network, our ability to understand complex, cross-border organisations and our ability to support selective acquisitions.
Through our Business Leaders Network, we introduced Alan Peterson as Chairman of the business. In addition we have carried out a corporate strategy review which has led to a common understanding of the business and full Board consensus on strategy.
Furthermore we have identified various potential acquisitions and undertaken a number of strategic business reviews including cost-base, working capital management, performance of individual business units, IT infrastructure and pricing strategy.
We continue to work in alignment with the management team on a number of initiatives aimed at enhancing the performance of the business and have invested further funds during 2010 to support the inorganic growth of Azelis.
