DLA Piper advises BASF in the sale of its Kankakee, Illinois, manufacturing site and certain associated business divisions to One Rock Capital Partners

DLA Piper represented BASF Corporation in the sale of its manufacturing site in Kankakee, Illinois, and the associated businesses of vegetable-oil-based raw material sterols and natural vitamin E, anionic surfactants and esters produced there to an affiliate of One Rock Capital Partners, LLC, a US-based private equity firm.

BASF acquired the site and its businesses, which have around 160 employees, including business management and commercial personnel across the US, from Cognis in 2010. BASF continues to produce anionic surfactants for the home care, personal care and industrial formulators industries at its other sites worldwide.

“We were pleased to bring to bear our extensive specialty chemicals and industrials M&A experience to assist BASF with this transaction that will enable BASF to streamline its global manufacturing footprint,” said Tim Arndt and Benjamin Parameswaran, the DLA Piper partners who led the firm’s deal team, along with PK Paran and Penny Minna. 

In addition to Arndt (New York), Parameswaran (Hamburg, Germany), who is one of DLA Piper’s global client relationship partners for BASF and recently advised BASF inter alia on the acquisition of Solvay’s polyamide business, Paran (New York) and Minna (Baltimore), the international DLA Piper team that represented BASF included partners Peter Alfano, Ilya Bubel, James Kelly, Paolo Morante, Jeffrey Salinger (all of New York), Victoria Lee (Silicon Valley) and Rita Patel (Washington, DC); and associates Caroline Lee (San Francisco), Rube Uthayakumar, Scott Luftig (both of New York) and Robert Parisot (Chicago).

With more than 1,000 corporate lawyers globally, DLA Piper helps clients execute complex cross-border transactions seamlessly while supporting clients across all stages of development. The firm has been rated number one in global M&A volume for ten consecutive years, according to Mergermarket. DLA Piper’s Private Equity practice includes more than 100 US lawyers who provide strategic counsel to private equity funds and the industry-leading companies they invest in. In 2019, Pitchbook recognized DLA Piper as the second most active private equity law firm globally, further solidifying the strength of the firm’s team and its depth of experience executing private equity transactions.