Pension fund Oyak buys Almatis from Dubai group

FRANKFURT / ISTANBUL - Reuters

Turkey’s largest private pension fund Oyak has agreed to buy German alumina products maker Almatis from Dubai International Capital (DIC), the company said in a statement on July 14.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

However, a person familiar with the deal said that DIC was able to achieve a price close to its expectations of around $1 billion.

Almatis had earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of around $100 million in 2014. Listed alumina products makers, such as Vesuvius, Albermarle and Imerys, trade at an average multiple of eight times their expected earnings.

DIC launched the Almatis sale with the help of its advisor Barclays earlier this year, seeking to reduce its liabilities in the wake of a debt restructuring.

DIC bought Almatis at the height of the buyout boom in 2007 for $1.2 billion from Rhone Capital and Teachers’ Private Capital, the private investment arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

But its investment crumbled as demand for the company’s products collapsed in the economic crisis and Almatis went into restructuring in 2010.

Almatis, an acronym for “Alumina Materials, Innovative Solutions”, makes alumina for the refractory, ceramic and polishing industries and has 1,150 employees.

Almatis, a former Alcoa unit, sought protection from creditors with more than $1 billion in debt.