KBR, Inc. (Houston; www.kbr.com) announced that it has acquired Weatherly Inc, Plinke GmbH and Chematur Ecoplanning Oy from Chematur Technologies AB, owned by Connell Chemical.
Weatherly is a North American-based company with extensive experience providing nitric acid and ammonium nitrate proprietary technologies and services to the fertilizer market. For more than five decades, Weatherly has designed, engineered and constructed these integral processes in fertilizer complexes worldwide. With the acquisition of Weatherly, KBR is uniquely positioned as a top global provider of fertilizer technologies and life cycle services offerings combined with market-leading ammonia solutions. Weatherly has an installed base of 80 nitric acid plants worldwide with approximately 30% market share of installed plants.
Plinke is a German-based company specializing in proprietary technology and specialist equipment for the purification and concentration of inorganic acids used or produced in hydrocarbon processing facilities worldwide. Ecoplanning, based in Finland, offers proprietary evaporation and crystallization technologies and specialist equipment for weak acid and base solutions. Plinke and Ecoplanning’s plants and solutions expand KBR’s technology portfolio and can be delivered across KBR’s Refining, Petrochemical and Fertilizer platforms and provide opportunities for KBR to complement key value-added services to an expanded base of clients globally.
“Through these acquisitions, KBR can more fully serve our clients’ fertilizer complex solution requirements, as well as expanding our consulting and technical services to improve plant performance throughout the plant’s lifecycle. KBR’s ammonia and Weatherly’s fertilizer capabilities result in a powerful combination of industry-leading technologies and Plinke and Ecoplanning enhance the scope pf KBR’s technology solutions across expanded platforms. KBR sees great opportunity to extend these technologies outside North America to new customers and in revamping units of the existing customer base globally, leveraging KBR’s global sales team and EPC capabilities,” said Stuart Bradie, President and CEO of KBR.
“We chose these companies, all with over 50 years of experience and hundreds of plants worldwide, based on their track record of superior performance, market reputation, unique technologies, and proven delivery capability to augment KBR’s existing technologies and extend our scope in markets we now serve and beyond. We are pleased to add these technologies and capabilities, as well as the talented staff who will manage them for us within our global portfolio,” continued Bradie.
The transaction price is $24.5M, subject to working capital adjustments.