Lubrizol Acquires Nalco Personal Care Business
Strengthens Noveon® Consumer Specialties Product Portfolio with Industry Leading Brands
CLEVELAND, January 26, 2011 - The Lubrizol Corporation (NYSE:LZ) announces today that it
has acquired Nalco Performance Products Group, a supplier of value-added specialty polymers
and formulation additives marketed to the global personal care and household care industries.
This acquisition, structured as an asset sale, will expand the strategic portfolio of Lubrizol's
Noveon® Consumer Specialties Home and Personal Care product line. For the 12 months
ended December 2010, estimated sales of the Nalco personal care business are $45 million.
The deal closed on January 21, 2011.
Headquartered in Naperville, IL, Nalco's personal care product portfolio includes performance
polymers sold under globally recognized brand names, including:
o Merquat® Conditioning Polymers
o Sensomer® Naturally Derived Conditioning Polymers
o Fixomer® Styling Polymers
o Solamer® UV Absorbers
o Merguard® Preservatives
These specialty ingredients are used by leading multinational cosmetic and consumer product
companies to improve the performance of hair, skin and home care products consumers use on
a daily basis.
The Noveon Consumer Specialties product portfolio includes rheology modifiers and thickeners,
fixative polymers, specialty surfactants, emollient esters, unique sensory modifiers and cationic
cassia conditioning polymers. Its claims-driving and enabling ingredients, including the industry
leading brand Carbopol® polymers, are designed to provide product formulators with a strong
range of technologies that enhance the visual and tactile appeal, functional performance and
convenience of fast-moving consumer goods.
"The joining of our two personal care product lines creates a portfolio of industry-leading
technologies that will help make our combined customers more successful through expanded
access to innovative ingredients, formulations and applications knowledge," commented Eric
Schnur, president of Lubrizol Advanced Materials. "This is another example of how the company
continues to invest in our personal and home care business, increasing our product innovation
capabilities, our global infrastructure and our talent base."
While the Nalco personal care business has achieved consistent growth in sales and earnings
over the past eight years, the company decided to exit the personal care and household care
business in order to focus on its core industrial water, energy and air applications business.
"Our personal care business is more product oriented than service oriented and not a strategic
fit with our emphasis on providing sustainability services for industrial water, energy and air
applications," said Nalco chairman and chief executive officer J. Erik Fyrwald. "Lubrizol is a well
respected industry leader with a strong commitment to the personal care industry, which is more
of an advantage for that business. This sale allows Nalco to more closely concentrate on the
industrial and institutional markets that are the core of our business."
The agreement includes all Nalco personal care dedicated technology, know-how, application
knowledge, intellectual property, trade names, customer lists and relationships, and base
business, as well as royalty-free access to the use of technology and intellectual property
currently shared with other Nalco businesses. With this acquisition, Lubrizol will be assuming
approximately 15 full-time employees, and it is expected that all Nalco personal care products
will be transitioned to Lubrizol over the next six months. The Nalco personal care brand names
will be retained and unified under the Noveon Consumer Specialties product line.
The acquisition will be accretive in the first year.
About The Lubrizol Corporation
The Lubrizol Corporation (NYSE: LZ) is an innovative specialty chemical company that
produces and supplies technologies to customers in the global transportation, industrial and
consumer markets. These technologies include lubricant additives for engine oils, other
transportation-related fluids and industrial lubricants, as well as fuel additives for gasoline and
diesel fuel. In addition, Lubrizol makes ingredients and additives for personal care products and
pharmaceuticals; specialty materials, including plastics technology and performance coatings in
the form of specialty resins and additives. Lubrizol's industry-leading technologies in additives,
ingredients and compounds enhance the quality, performance and value of customers'
products, while reducing their environmental impact.
With headquarters in Wickliffe, Ohio, The Lubrizol Corporation owns and operates
manufacturing facilities in 17 countries, as well as sales and technical offices around the world.
Founded in 1928, Lubrizol has approximately 6,800 employees worldwide. Revenues for 2009
were $4.6 billion. For more information, visit www.lubrizol.com.
About Nalco
Nalco Company is the world's largest sustainability services company focused on industrial
water, energy and air applications; delivering significant environmental, social and economic
performance benefits to our customers. The company helps its customers reduce energy, water
and other natural resource consumption, enhance air quality, minimize environmental releases
and improve productivity and end products while boosting the bottom line. Together these
comprehensive solutions contribute to the sustainable development of customer operations.
Nalco is a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. More than 11,500 Nalco
employees operate in 150 countries supported by a comprehensive network of manufacturing
facilities, sales offices and research centers to serve a broad range of end markets. In 2009,
Nalco achieved sales of more than $3.7 billion. For more information, visit www.nalco.com.
The Lubrizol Corporation
29400 Lakeland Boulevard,
Wickliffe,
Ohio 44092-2298
