The German wood coating companies Oskar Nolte and Klumpp Coatings have been sold to Sherwin-Williams Company

The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE: SHW) has signed an agreement to acquire Germany-based Specialized Industrial Coatings Holding (SIC Holding), consisting of Oskar Nolte GmbH and Klumpp Coatings GmbH. The Hamburg-based family-run industrial holding Peter Möhrle Holding, and GP Capital are thus selling their joint stake in Oskar Nolte and Klumpp Coatings to the world’s leading paint and coatings company with global sales of more than 19 billion US dollars. Upon completion of the transaction, Oskar Nolte and Klumpp Coatings will become part of the Sherwin-Williams Performance Coatings Group business unit in the Industrial Wood operating segment.

Livingstone’s Industrial sector team has supported all selling shareholders throughout the international process as exclusive M&A advisors. The parties have agreed not to disclose the economic conditions of the transaction, which is expected to be completed at the beginning of 2023, subject to the official approvals and approvals that are still outstanding.

Oskar Nolte is the world’s leading manufacturer of high-performance wood coating systems for special applications in the furniture and furniture supply industry (HDF, MDF, and chipboard). The company is a pioneer in the development of solvent-free, radiation-curing, and water-based coating systems for wood and furniture and sells ecologically efficient solutions from its headquarters in Kirchlengern to its global customer base. Since taking over the business operations for film coatings from Akzo Nobel in 2019, Oskar Nolte has also offered special film coating solutions for paper and plastics and has consistently developed them further since then. Klumpp Coatings was founded in 1919 as a family business and was taken over by SIC Holding in 2020 and integrated into it as Oskar Nolte’s sister company. Klumpp develops and manufactures high-quality, innovative coating systems for use on wood, HDF/MDF, mineral fiber, foil, and plastic surfaces (PVC/WPC) for the furniture, panel, and flooring industry. Together, Oskar Nolte and Klumpp are the world’s leading, independent (family-owned) coatings company for large-scale industrial interior applications (floor coverings, furniture) and are therefore market and technology leaders. The joint range of products and services combines advanced performance products and strong advisory skills with ecologically sensible manufacturing processes and products. With its presence in Europe, Asia, and South America, the company has around 220 employees and generates annual sales of over 91.5 million euros.

Founded in 1866, The Sherwin-Williams Company is a global leader in the manufacture, development, distribution, and sale of paints, coatings, and related products to professional, industrial, commercial, and retail customers. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, the company manufactures and sells products under well-known brands such as Sherwin-Williams®, Valspar®, HGTV HOME® by Sherwin-Williams®, Dutch Boy®, Krylon®, Minwax®, Thompson’s® Water Seal®, Cabot® and many more. The Sherwin-Williams Performance Coatings Group business unit supplies a wide range of highly engineered solutions to the construction, industrial, packaging, and transportation markets in more than 120 countries around the world.

“This acquisition creates opportunities to accelerate our profitable growth in the global industrial wood coatings market and aligns with our strategy to acquire complementary, high-quality, differentiated businesses,” said John G. Morikis, Sherwin-Williams chairman and chief executive officer. “The extensive offering from Oskar Nolte and Klumpp Coatings also includes unique and innovative film coatings that give us access to other adjacent growth markets where Sherwin-Williams is not previously present. We are delighted with the excellent relationships with both multinational, as well as local customers, the strategically thought-out manufacturing capacities, the numerous (customer-specific) approvals, as well as the strong technical sales teams of Oskar Nolte and Klumpp Coatings, which we will continue to use throughout Europe and beyond welcoming employees from these companies to the Sherwin-Williams family upon the closing of the transaction.”

“On behalf of the shareholders, I would like to thank the managing directors of SIC Holding, Dr. Arne Deußen and Guido Schweizer, the entire team, and our long-standing industry specialist, entrepreneur, and co-partner Guido Pühse for almost five years of Successful cooperation. Following the acquisition of Oskar Nolte in 2018, we were able to expand the established business with environmentally friendly wood coating systems for the furniture industry, significantly expand the group through acquisitions in the area of ​​​​foil and floor coatings and also achieve significant internationalization. We believe that we have developed a real hidden champion that, as part of the Sherwin-Williams Group, now represents a platform for further growth,” said Rudolf Ohnesorge, who accompanied the transaction for Peter Möhrle Holding. “In addition, I would like to thank the Livingstone team for their outstanding commitment and support throughout this transaction. The in-depth knowledge of the company, its business model, and the special features of the wood-based materials market, coupled with professional and detail-oriented process management, were the key to enabling this cross-border transaction with a large international strategic acquirer.”

Christian Grandin, a Managing Partner of Livingstone Partners in Düsseldorf, commented: “Corporate transactions with strategic buyers are always particularly complex in terms of confidentiality and sensitivity of company data and know-how. Against this background, we play a particularly key role as advisors in such transactions maintaining confidentiality on the one hand, as well as communicating requirements and expectations and supporting the due diligence process on the other hand. It is not about impeding transactions in the end but enabling them. We, therefore, thank the members of the deal team at the Sherwin Williams Group and the selling shareholders for the trust that all parties have placed in us throughout the process. It was a particular pleasure for us, following numerous joint transactions in the past, to work again with Peter Möhrle Holding, and Mr. Pühse and collaborate with the management team. We wish the management team and the Sherwin-Williams Group all the best for the successful (further) development of Oskar Nolte and Klumpp Coatings.”

“Following the sale of a majority stake in Ambienta in 2015 and the joint exit of Ambienta and the then managing partner Guido Pühse in 2018, this was the third time that the Düsseldorf team from Livingstone had successfully advised Oskar Nolte’s shareholders with the advice of the Livingstone’s industrial sector team on the sale of Pinturas Benicarlo to Ferro Corp., and the acquisition of IQAP Masterbatch Group by PolyOne Corp. All these transactions underline Livingstone’s deep market know-how in of the global paint, coatings, and coatings industry,” added Johannes Faber, Partner at Livingstone Partners in Düsseldorf.