Bill Ackman’s Platform Specialty Holdings is back at it, offering a £1.35 billion buyout to Alent, a roughly 50% premium. Platform is paying close to 20x 2015 earnings for the deal.
The bigger news is that Platform has been very active of last, becoming a true platform company for Ackman. No surprise that Jarden’s founder is the Platform Specialty chairman. Earlier this year it paid $1 billion for Chemtura and other 300 euro for Agriphar. It’s also looking to snatch up OM Group’s [lots of pissing and moaning over that deal] electronic chemicals business for just over $360 million. In 2013 it bought up MacDermid and in 2014 bought the agriculture chemical maker Arysta LifeScience for $3.5 billion.
